NEW DELHI: The Congress on Sunday began a day-long “Sankalp Satyagraha” at Delhi’s Rajghat in support of Rahul Gandhi following his disqualification from the Lok Sabha.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party’s top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.
Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Saktisinh Gohil, Jothimani, Pratibha Singh and Manish Chatrath were also present at the protest site.
Several leaders of the party’s Delhi also took part in the protest while a large number of party workers gathered outside the venue despite the police refusing to grant permission for the satyagraha.
In a letter, the Delhi Police said the request for holding the satyagraha was rejected due to law and order and traffic reasons and prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC had been imposed in and around Rajghat.
A senior police officer told PTI that while permission for holding the satyagraha was denied, adequate security arrangements were put in place.
In response to the Delhi Police’s action, Venugopal said on Twitter, “After silencing our voice in Parliament, the government has refused to let us hold a peaceful satyagraha at Bapu’s (Mahatma Gandhi) samadhi as well.
“It has become a habit for the Modi government to disallow every opposition protest. This will not deter us, our fight for truth, against tyranny goes on.”
The Congress has put up a stage outside Rajghat and are protesting against Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 defamation case and his subsequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha.
It has announced plans for a day-long satyagraha in front of Mahatma Gandhi statues at all states and district headquarters to protest against the disqualification.
Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat’s Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case.
The disqualification will prevent Gandhi (52), a four-time MP, from contesting elections for eight years unless a higher court stays the conviction.
Meanwhile, speaking for the first time since his disqualification, Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP government by reiterating that “democracy is under attack” in India. He also of an apology over his remarks on the Modi surname in 2019, which a Surat court found defamatory, saying “My name is not Savarkar. My name is Gandhi. I won’t apologise.”
Lambasting PM Narendra Modi, Rahul said that he had been disqualified “the Prime Minister is scared about my next speech on Adani and that is why this whole game of disqualification, allegations by ministers aimed at distracting people from Adani issue.”
The Congress leader said: “This is the whole drama that is been orchestrated to defend the Prime Minister from the simple question- Who’s Rs 20,000 crore went to Adani’s shell companies? I am not scared of these threats, disqualifications, or prison sentences.”
He also said that the BJP was trying to divert the issue by alleging that he had insulted OBCs and he would continue to ask what is Modi’s relationship with businessman Gautam Adani.
The disqualification will bar Gandhi (52), a four-time MP, from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction.
