Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led Congress protest against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as Member of Parliament and launched a scathing attack at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) while addressing party workers in the national capital today. Priyanka questioned the disqualification and asked why no action is taken against the leaders of the saffron camp.
“You (BJP) talk about ‘Pariwarvaad’, I want to ask who was Lord Ram? Was he ‘Pariwarvaadi’, or were the Pandavas ‘Pariwarvaadi’ just because they fought for the culture of their family? Should we be ashamed because our family members fought for the people of the country? My family has nurtured the democracy of this country with their blood,” she said.
“My father was insulted in the Parliament, my brother has been given names like Meer Jafar. Your ministers insult my mother in the Parliament. One of your CM said Rahul Gandhi does not even know who his father is, but no action is taken against these people. Such people are not disqualified from the Parliament, they are not sent to jail, and they are not stopped from contesting elections for years. They have insulted my family a lot of times, but we kept quiet,” she added.
Priyanka Gandhi further defended Rahul Gandhi and said that he even hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament and said he has no hatred against anyone. My brother went to PM Modi and hugged him in the Parliament and said I have no hatred for you. We might have different ideologies but we do not have the ideology of hatred, she said. In 2018, Rahul Gandhi gave the PM a hug after his nearly hour-long speech.
Congress holding satyagraha
Congress is holding a day-long satyagraha across the country today to protest party leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha. In Delhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are leading the satyagraha. Notably, their protest request at Raj Ghat was turned down by the police in view of law and order and traffic issues.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal and other leaders arrived at Rajghat this morning to protest against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi.
The protest comes in wake or Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as an MP. A Surat Court had convicted Rahul Gandhi of defamation and sentenced him to two years in prison for mocking the surname “Modi” in an election speech in Karnataka in 2019. Rahul Gandhi during an election campaign for the 2019 general elections had said “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname”.
The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma held Gandhi guilty under Indian Penal Code section 504, which deals with intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace. The Surat court sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years of jail term. He was later granted bail and his two-year sentence was suspended for 30 days.
On Friday, Rahul Gandhi was not allowed to enter the Lok Sabha. Parliament’s lower house stated that he cannot participate in parliamentary proceedings as he was disqualified as per the law.
