GUWAHATI
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on January 18 ran into a demonstration by a suspended Youth Congress leader in Assam, triggering a justice versus justice debate.
Angkita Dutta who was suspended from the primary membership of Congress in April 2023 after she accused Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas B. V. of sexual harassment, staged a sit-in protest along with her supporters in Sivasagar district’s Amguri along the yatra route.
The convoy of vehicles on the yatra entered Assam from Nagaland through the Amguri area. “I came here to seek nyay (justice) because he [Mr. Gandhi] gave me a ray of hope when he embarked upon his Nyay Yatra. I wanted to submit a memorandum seeking justice and reinstatement in the party,” she said.
She did not get an opportunity to meet Mr. Gandhi as his convoy drove past, her supporters said. “I did not join any political party in these 10 months after my suspension, but I did not get any justice from a leader who set out to seek justice for the people of this country,” Ms. Dutta, the daughter of former Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Anjan Dutta said.
She said the State Congress leaders, including president Bhupen Kumar Borah, were aware of her programme. Ms. Dutta’s supporters had put up posters along the Yatra route seeking justice for a “daughter of Assam”.
While Congress leaders declined to speak on Ms. Dutta’s demonstration, their BJP counterparts referred to her case as “an example of how Congress delivers justice to one of their own”.
“Justice should be for all, not selective. An organisation should adhere to certain guidelines in cases of sexual harassment and Congress leaders on a justice-seeking yatra should come clean about why they cannot ensure justice for one of their own,” BJP leader Nalin Kohli told some TV channels.
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