NEW DELHI: Congress on Tuesday escalated the protest against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament by trying to take out the ‘Save Democracy’ march from Red Fort to Town Hall in the capital. The march of hundreds of party workers and leaders was, however, stopped by Delhi Police.
Several leaders, including former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and Madhya Pradesh in-charge J P Agarwal, were detained by the police, but they were later released.
The march was organised not only to protest against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification but also to demand a JPC probe into the Adani issue. Top leaders, including P Chidambaram, K C Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, and Jairam Ramesh, led the march which was scheduled to begin from Red Fort.
The official Twitter handle of Congress said, “The dictator got scared of ‘Satya’ and ‘Satyagraha’. A large number of police were deployed near the Red Fort to stop the peaceful ‘torch march’ of the Congress. Several Congress workers are being arrested from every corner of Delhi,” it said.
Taking to Twitter, Venugopal said that the Delhi Police is stopping leaders from taking out the ‘Save Democracy’, and did not allow them to reach the venue.“However, this has not deterred us, and we have begun our march from the police barricades itself,” said the MP in his tweet. The Congress workers also raised slogans such as “Modi Adani are brothers” and “We want JPC”.
Congress workers also alleged that Delhi police heckled workers and took many into custody including the Delhi Congress chief, Youth Congress chief and others ahead of the protest.
In Parliament, Congress and other Opposition parties, including TMC, continued their attack on the government on the Adani issue and Rahul’s disqualification. Many leaders wore black for the second day in a row. Both the Houses were adjourned after protests from Opposition and Treasury benches.