At Rajghat in Delhi on Sunday, the Congress began a day-long “Sankalp Satyagraha” in support of erstwhile party leader Rahul Gandhi as the Delhi police enforced Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to forbid gatherings of more than five people in the area.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of the Congress, as well as other senior leaders like K. C. Venugopal, P. Chidambaram, and Jairam Ramesh participated in the protest, and many party members gathered outside the location despite the police’s refusal to permit the “satyagraha.”
Priyanka Gandhi attacked the Narendra Modi administration at the Center while speaking to the demonstration. “This nation’s prime minister is a traitor. Yes, bring a lawsuit against me and imprison me as well. He’s an arrogant wimp. Our nation has a history of overthrowing a haughty monarch, she said.
Priyanka criticised the BJP for accusing the Congress of engaging in “dynastic politics” and questioned whether the party would make the same claim about Lord Ram, who also hailed from a dynasty.
“You (the BJP) mention ‘Pariwarvaad,’ so I want to know who Lord Ram was. He or the Pandavas were Pariwarvaadi, right? Because my family fought for the nation, should we be ashamed? With their blood, my family has nourished this nation’s freedom, Priyanka said.
Shashi Tharoor, a Congress member of Parliament (MP), who was also present at Rajghat today, stated that this Satyagraha was about Indian freedom and not just the Congress or Rahul Gandhi.
In a statement to the media, Tharoor asked, “Is it good for our democracy when the chief opposition leader is not allowed to raise his voice in Parliament where we have a PM who talks to the world about India as the mother of democracy?
The “Sankalp Satyagraha” was organised following Rahul Gandhi, a Wayanad MP, being removed from the Lok Sabha a day after his conviction in a slander case in Surat, Gujarat. Gandhi, a four-time MP, will not be eligible to run for office for eight years unless a higher judge overturns his conviction due to the disqualification.
Similar day-long satyagrahas are also being held by the Congress in a number of other states, including Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, etc., in front of statues of Gandhi or at the respective party offices.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was about to criticise the Congress’s day-long demonstration in a statement.
Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, said in response to the demonstration, “One who condemns his country, walks on the path of untruth, can’t do Satyagraha.”
After Jagdish Tytler joined the demonstration, RP Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi, two BJP spokespersons, also criticised the Congress.
In allusion to Tytler’s alleged involvement in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Singh referred to him as a “killer of Sikhs” and claimed that the satyagraha was an attempt to “re-establish” the former Congress MP.
