The standoff between Gandhi and the government began on Monday, when the former Congress chief brought a copy of a magazine article which cited Naravane’s unpublished book. Gandhi had sought to raise questions about the central government’s handling of the 2020 India-China border clashes.

Mumbai and Pune, two bustling cities of Maharashtra, are located around 191 kilometers apart by rail. Vaishnaw, however, did not give out any timeline for the upcoming high-speed rail corridor project.

New Delhi has urged immediate action to recover the statue and bring those responsible to justice. The statue was cut from its base using an angle grinder and stolen from the Australian Indian Community Centre in Rowville suburb of Melbourne.