Senior leaders of the Congress including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra held a meeting on Saturday in which the party decided to hold a six hour ‘dharna’ (sit in) at Rajghat, Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial, to protest against National Register of Citizens and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is expected to take part in the protest as he is scheduled to return to India late on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
Congress party's programme is likely to start in the second half, around 2 pm, is likely to be attended by the top brass of the party.
Apart from Ms Vadra, other senior leaders, others who attended the meet included Ahmed Patel, K C Venugopal, Jyotiraditya Scindia among leaders.
‘Dictatorial mindset’
Ms Vadra also accused the Modi government of adopting a “dictatorial mindset to suppress the voice of the people”.
“The NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act is against the fundamental spirit of the Constitution of India. Assault on Baba Saheb Ambedkar's Constitution will not be allowed at any cost. The public is fighting on the streets to protect constitution but the Government is bent upon barbaric repression and violence,” she said in a statement in Hindi.
“Illegal arrests of students, intellectuals, social workers, lawyers and journalists in all parts of the country is reprehensible. No one knows where the police is taking the people after arresting them throughout the country, including the state of Uttar Pradesh. It is a dark day for democracy”.
“In Firozabad, Amroha, Moradabad, Bareilly, Rampur, Kanpur and Gorakhpur, the police lathi-charged the peaceful demonstrators. Police is inciting people to violence during the protests and marches everywhere. There have been reports of 15 people killed in police violence in Uttar Pradesh”, alleged the Congress general secretary.
The Congress leader also accused the police of keeping several "socio-political activists for two days in illegal detention with shocking reports of they being beaten up and tortured in police custody".
Appealing for peace, she said, “Today it is necessary that Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution should be protected through the path of truth and non-violence as envisioned by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi”.
