Venting protest against the alleged conspiracy of the Narendra Modi Government to harass Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi and the party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi on the National Herald case, State Congress staged a protest march up to Rajbhawan on Saturday.
The most striking feature of the rally lay in the Chief Minister Harish Rawat participating in it on a wheel chair, beating his aching leg. The protestors served a memorandum after the rally was over. “The CM’s gesture is exemplary. He has shown that the interests of the party should always gain precedence over his illness and other problems,” said one of the beaming rallyists.
Before marching towards Rajbhawan, the Congress leaders gathered at a banquet hall on Subhash Road and shouted slogans against BJP- led Union Government. They alleged that the people had given them the mandate to run the nation and not to bay for the blood of the Opposition leaders. They said their leaders being unimpeachable had appeared in the court on the National Herald issue. “We, the Congress workers across the State, are solidly behind our leaders who embody probity in public life. The district Congress units have taken out rallies too to express their collective solidarity behind the leaders. We cannot be cowed down by such heinous conspiracy to throw slur on their fair faces,” said the State party chief Kishore Upadhyay.
They warned that they would embark on Jail Bharo Andolan if the Centre does not desist from conspiring against the leaders. “Thousands of our party workers and leaders would court arrest and go to jails to show that the party does not cower before forces running vilification campaign. BJP had better understand that they must fulfill the mounting expectations of the people they had themselves spawned in the run-up to the 2014 general election. The people would show them the doors if they fail to rise up to the occasion and go for throwing mud on the leaders who embody unimpeachable honesty,” the State Congress leader asserted.
He further said they have full confidence in the Indian judiciary. “leaders like GN Azad and Mallikarjun Kharge aside from Rahul Gandhi have expressing their trust in the judiciary. Our target is not the judiciary but those in the Centre who are hell-bent on defaming our leaders through malicious intrigues. We would not sit idle and let them get away with their dark deeds,” he said. Taking potshots at the Prime Minister Modi, he said he himself had warned the judiciary against coming under the influence of ‘five-star activists’. “Does it display the ruling party’s confidence in the impartiality of the judiciaryIJ” he asked, adding that the PM seeking to browbeat the judiciary augurs ill for the democratic structure of governance India prides itself on.
Equating BJP with political vendetta meant to reduce robustly democratic India to ‘opposition-free India’, he said Congress stands for the supremacy of the Constitution. “After the mining scam came into light in Rajasthan cases were lodged against the Rajasthan PCC chief Sachin Pilot and former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot by way of vendetta politics. Similarly, the Central Bureau of Investigation has also lodged such FIRs against scores of senior Congress leaders in Haryana, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Goa. In West Bengal, the TMC leaders are also being harassed by the CBI/Enforcement Directorate and other agencies,” alleged the PCC chief.
Referring to the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill and Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, Upadyaya said it was the BJP which had stopped their passage for six years. “By way of contrast, Congress has played the role of a responsible opposition and helped BJP pass the Insurance Regulatory Authority legislation. Congress is a stout champion of GST. But the Centre ignoring the three main suggestions made by the Congress to make GST more effective is making the party to stall its passage,” the State Congress chief said.