RAHUL GANDHI ARRESTED!

RAHULGANDHI was held for more than two hours under preventive detention laws late on Wednesday in opposition-ruled Uttar Pradesh after he sat all day with farmers angry at police for shooting dead two people in the week-long protest.

Gandhi is son of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, the country's most powerful politician. He has made high profile campaigns across India for the rights of villagers, a move widely seen as preparing his path as a future prime minister.

The very unusual move to arrest someone as powerful as Gandhi may increase tensions between the fiery Uttar Pradesh leader Mayawati and Congress party. Mayawati is not part of the ruling coalition but has often voted with the government.

The protests in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida are the latest in a series across the country over attempts to acquire land for industry and Congress has seized on them to muster support ahead of state elections next year.

Uttar Pradesh is India's largest state and Gandhi has set his eyes on strengthening Congress there in time for elections in 2014.

"I feel ashamed to call myself Indian after seeing what has happened here. The (state) government here has unleashed atrocities on its own people," Gandhi said as he joined the farmers.

NDTV reported on its website that farmers were paid a little over 800 rupees ($18) per square metre for the land. That same land was sold to developers for 3,200 rupees a square metre. Some is now being offered as residential plots for 14,000 a square metre.