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Detentions, face-offs at Congress price rise protest
The opposition party has alleged that this trend is a ploy to silence it, while the BJP has stressed that no one is above the law.
The Congress held nationwide protests on Friday, including mass demonstrations in the national capital where nearly 400 of its workers and MPs were detained, including key leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge, and P Chidambaram, for roughly seven hours.
The agitation triggered one of the most serious political war of words with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in recent days, and comes close on the heels of multiple Congress leaders being questioned by federal law enforcement. The opposition party has alleged that this trend is a ploy to silence it, while the BJP has stressed that no one is above the law.
“What we are witnessing is the death of democracy in India,” Congress Lok Sabha member Rahul Gandhi told reporters on Friday. “Anybody who stands against this idea of the onset of dictatorship is viciously attacked, put in jail, arrested, and beaten. The idea is that people’s issues — whether they are price rises, unemployment, or violence in society — people’s issues must not be raised. That is the sole agenda of the government.”
Also read: 'Subtle message of…': Amit Shah, Yogi slam Congress for day & colour of protest
Those detained also included KC Venugopal, Shashi Tharoor, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, and Shashi Tharoor.
The party’s protests — which it stressed were squarely on inflation and GST levies on items such as packaged food — were held in almost every state of the country, and workers were detained in states such as Bihar and Gujarat, while marches were blocked in Mumbai and Guwahati.
Several BJP leaders called the protests an attempt to save the Gandhi family, referring to the investigation into the publisher of National Herald in which Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in the last two months, and Union home minister Amit Shah linked the black attire that the Congress workers wore as a mark of protest to what he said was the party’s opposition to the Ram temple.
Congress leaders denied both charges.
In Delhi, the demonstration began in the Parliament complex, where the MPs gathered in black clothes as a mark of protest.
The members attempted to march towards the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Prime Minister’s residence, when they were stopped and detained. Rahul Gandhi and party’s general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were also among the detained Congress leaders who were removed from outside the Parliament and the party’s headquarters and detained at Kingsway Camp police line office for nearly five hours.
“They (BJP) think Opposition can be muzzled. As their ministers can’t see inflation, we want to show them inflation by marching towards the PM house... PM Modi has handed over the assets of the country to his friends,” said Priyanka Gandhi.
In a statement, the Delhi Police said in total, 335 protesters and 65 MPs were detained under the Delhi Police Act in order to “maintain law and order” in the area.
The protesters were appropriately warned about orders in force in the area that prohibited large gatherings and were repeatedly requested to disperse from the area, the police said.
“When the police personnel moved in to contain the situation, the protestors tried to obstruct the police officers from performing their duties, manhandled and injured them. Appropriate legal action is being taken into the matter,” the police said.
All the detained Congress leaders and supporters were released before 7pm, police said.
Protests were held at various locations in New Delhi, including Akbar Road, Vijay Chowk and Jantar Mantar.
Police prevented the party’s efforts to hold marches in Mumbai, Guwahati, and some other cities, detaining members and taking them away in buses and other vehicles.
Also read: ‘Democracy is a memory’: Rahul Gandhi, detained, on Congress MPs-cops faceoff
“This is the worst form of vendetta politics. We will not submit! We will not be silenced! We will continue to raise our voice against injustices and failures of the Modi government,” the party said in a tweet.
The issue of price rise rocked parliament for most of the previous week, prompting the government to agree to a debate in the House earlier this week. Opposition members accused the government of not doing enough, especially for the poor who, they said, were being disproportionately hit by inflation, which has remained at or around 7%.
The Union finance minister hit back, saying the concerns being raised were political and that India was doing better than its peers and several western nations, where economic growth rates had dropped.
Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath later alleged that the protest in black clothes was part of the Congress’s “appeasement” politics to convey an opposition to the Ram temple foundation laying by Modi on August 5, 2020. Shah said the Congress was using the issues like ED action and price rise only as excuses — a position rejected by Congress leaders, who said it was the BJP’s “desperate attempt to divert, distract, polarise” the protests.
