Congress to observe day-long ‘Satyagraha’ on Sunday in protest against Rahul’s disqualification

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The Congress will organise a day-long ‘Satyagraha’ on Sunday in solidarity with Rahul Gandhi in front of Gandhi statues at all states and district headquarters to protest against his disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

The satyagraha will begin at 10 AM and end at 5 PM.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will stage the satyagraha at Raj Ghat in the national capital.

The party feels that Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and disqualification, which it has alleged was done in reaction to his consistently questioning the relationship between PM Narendra Modi and businessman Gautam Adani, poses a serious threat to the world’s largest democracy.

The Congress has said that Rahul Gandhi is not alone and millions of congressmen and people irrespective of their political affiliations will join him in this fight for truth and justice.

To this end, all Pradesh Congress Committees have been asked to organise a one-day Satyagraha in front of Gandhi statues in all State and District Headquarters from 10 AM to 5 PM on Sunday.

The top Congress leadership also went into a huddle once again at the party headquarters here with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and general secretaries K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, along with the two chief ministers Ashok Gehlot and Bhupesh Baghel.

Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi refused to apologise over his recent comments against the BJP and the RSS.

“My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday responding to a query on repeated calls by the BJP seeking his apology over various issues.

The former Congress chief made the remarks while addressing a press conference after being disqualified from Lok Sabha.

Asked what he thinks about calls from the BJP seeking his apology for allegedly seeking foreign intervention and whether he could have regretted his remarks in court for which he has been convicted for defamation, he said, “Rahul Gandhi thinks my name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi, Gandhi does not offer apology to anyone.” Gandhi has often targeted late Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar, saying that he helped the British rulers and wrote a mercy petition to them out of fear.

At the presser, he said that he had made appeals that he be allowed to speak in Parliament but was not given permission.

“Wrote to the Speaker twice, then went to him personally and said ‘you are the protector of democracy, allow me to speak’, he smiles and says ‘I can’t do it’. If you cannot do it, who can do it, I may have to go to Modi ji then but he will not allow me to speak,” Gandhi said.

“So, my point is that, democracy is finished in this country, people cannot speak what is on their minds, institutions in this country are being attacked and the mechanism of that attack is the relationship between Narendra Modi and Adani,” the Congress leader said.

In his remarks at the presser, Gandhi said he will keep asking questions on the Adani issue.

“Ministers lied about me that I called for foreign intervention (abroad), I did not do so,” Gandhi said.

Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat’s Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case.

The disqualification from Lok Sabha will bar Gandhi (52), a four-time MP, from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction.