NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday accused the federal government of performing with “lightning speed” in disqualifying Rahul Gandhi, saying it quantities to “strangulation of democracy” and alleging that the ruling dispensation is popping out with new strategies to “gag” him. The get together management obtained right into a huddle quickly after the disqualification was introduced by the Lok Sabha Secretariat and determined to battle it legally and politically and launch a national “Jan Andolan” beginning Monday.
The Congress additionally welcomed statements of help by opposition leaders and stated Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has been coordinating with numerous events in Parliament and this coordination can be prolonged exterior Parliament as effectively.
Party MPs earlier staged a protest march until Vijay Chowk and several other MPs had been detained by the Delhi Police for violation of prohibitory orders and saved on the Kingsway Camp police station earlier than being launched within the night.
In his first response after the disqualification, Rahul Gandhi in a tweet stated, “I am fighting for the voice of India. I am ready to pay any price.”
His sister and Congress common secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched an all-out assault on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying in a tweet in Hindi, “Narendra Modi ji, your sycophants called the son of a martyred prime Minister a traitor, Mir Jafar. One of your Chief Minister raised questions as to who is the father of Rahul Gandhi? Following the custom of Kashmiri Pandits, a son wears ‘pagdi’ after his father’s death, maintaining his family’s tradition.”
“Insulting the whole family and the Kashmiri Pandit community, you asked in Parliament why we don’t keep the name Nehru. But no judge gave you a sentence of two years. Did not disqualify you from the Parliament,” she stated.
Addressing a press convention on the AICC headquarters, get together spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi stated the difficulty of Gandhi’s disqualification was each political and authorized. “It is a political issue because it signifies the systematic and repetitive emasculation of democratic institutions by the ruling party and the strangulation of democracy itself.”
He alleged there have been “unthinkable assaults” on the liberty of speech with folks being informed that they might face the worst attainable penalties — civil, felony, incarceration, intimidation and harassment.
“We all know Rahul Gandhi has been speaking inside and outside Parliament fearlessly. He has spoken on social issues, economic issues, political issues without any fear or inhibition…Clearly he is paying the price for it,” Singhvi stated.
“This government is finding new techniques of throttling his voice, gagging him. Rahul Gandhi goes abroad, he is not allowed to speak on grounds of fake nationalism,” he alleged, including, “This is a conspiracy by the BJP against him.”
After the meet, Congress common secretary Jairam Ramesh informed reporters that the get together has determined to launch a folks’s motion, and alleged that the federal government has acted with lightning velocity to “gag” him.
“We will go all over the country as Rahul Gandhi was deliberately disqualified for raising his voice against the Modi government on the Adani issue, on the government’s foreign policy and the clean chit given to China for incursions at the border,” Ramesh stated, including that the BJP is rattled with the success of the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The Congress management has welcomed the statements of help of all opposition leaders, he stated, including, “There was a consensus that we should now take the job of building opposition unity in a systematic way.”
Ramesh additionally raised questions over the way wherein the complainant within the defamation case initially sought to get motion on his grievance stayed and shortly after Gandhi’s speech on the Adani problem in Parliament, obtained the keep vacated and the case moved ahead. “This is no coincidence.”
In a tweet later, Ramesh stated, “The Prime Minister is using G20 to proclaim to the world that India is the Mother of Democracy. That Mother is weeping today at the Murder of Democracy in India.”
The Congress stated it was “a black day for Indian democracy” and asserted that the battle can be fought each “legally and politically”.
Kharge stated the BJP made all efforts to get Rahul Gandhi disqualified as he was talking the reality. “He has been removed from the House for speaking the truth, fighting for the Constitution and for people’s rights.”
“This was not a question of backward class, Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi are not of backward class. They are trying to build a perception that Rahul Gandhi spoke against backward class. Gandhi was putting forward the truth before the country so they were not liking it,” he stated, in an obvious reference to BJP chief J P Nadda’s comment that Gandhi had in contrast OBC communities to thieves.
“We will keep fighting to protect democracy and even if we have to go to jail, we will do so,” Kharge stated.
Congress chief P Chidambaram stated, “Judgement on 23 March, disqualification on 24 March. The speed with which the system moved is astonishing. No time is spent on reflection, understanding or allowing time for legal review.”
“Obviously, there are no voices of moderation in the BJP party or government. The net result is parliamentary democracy has suffered another cruel blow,” he stated.
Congress common secretary Okay C Venugopal stated, “This is a clear case of anti-democratic, dictatorial attitude of the BJP government.”
Party chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury stated, “It is a sheer case of retributive politics because Rahul Gandhi has been gaining popularity in the wake of the Bharat Jodo Yatra…”
Singhvi stated after Gandhi got here again from overseas, his speeches grew to become the premise of motion towards him inside Parliament. “The disruption by the ruling party is part of a pattern… To stop him because he speaks fearlessly and candidly and to divert attention from the real issues and questions raised by him,” he stated, including that it’s being performed to ship a message and create concern psychosis amongst those that dare to query the federal government.
The BJP, nevertheless, dismissed the costs and termed the disqualification “lawful”.
Announcing his disqualification, the Lok Sabha Secretariat in a notification stated that it was efficient from March 23, the day of his conviction. On Thursday, a courtroom in Surat sentenced Gandhi to 2 years in jail in a defamation case, filed on a grievance by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi for his comment, “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?”
Following his disqualification, Gandhi wouldn’t be capable of contest elections for eight years except the next courtroom stays his conviction and sentence.
