The BJP and Congress engaged in a war of words on Tuesday regarding detention of climate activist Sonam Wangchuk and several others accompanying him at the Delhi border on Monday.

While Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi slammed the government for the action terming it as “unacceptable,” the BJP described the Congress' condemnation of the detention as "hypocrisy in extreme".  Rahul Gandhi also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to listen to Ladakh’s voice.

Wangchuk and more than 100 people from Ladakh, who had marched to Delhi demanding that the union territory be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, were detained at the capital's border on Monday for violating prohibitory orders and taken to different police stations.

Asked about the Congress' reaction, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar said, "I don't know the facts. I will have to check the facts."

"If Rahul Gandhi has a comment to make, why (does) he maintain a conspicuous silence when cartoonists are lifted in Kolkata and a satirist is jailed in Tamil Nadu," Shankar asked, adding that the Congress leader's reaction to Wangchuk's detention was "hypocrisy in extreme".

A Jadavpur University professor and his neighbour were arrested in West Bengal in 2012 for posting on social media a cartoon showing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

In 2017, a freelance cartoonist was arrested in Tamil Nadu for allegedly depicting the then chief minister K Palaniswami in an obscene manner in a caricature.

"The detention of Sonam Wangchuk ji and hundreds of Ladakhis peacefully marching for environmental and constitutional rights is unacceptable," Rahul Gandhi said in a social media post.

The former Congress chief also asked why elderly citizens were being detained at Delhi's border for standing up for Ladakh's future.

"Modi ji, like with the farmers, this 'Chakravyuh' will be broken, and so will your arrogance. You will have to listen to Ladakh's voice," Rahul Gandhi said.