JKPCC protests against Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) on Sunday held a day-long "Sankalp Satyagraha" against Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Scores of party activists held a protest at the party's headquarters at M A Road in Srinagar. A similar protest was held in Jammu.

Speaking to reporters in Srinagar, party leader Ghulam Ahmad Mir said not only the Congress, but all non-BJP secular parties have come together and are "wailing over the death of democracy" in the country.

"The BJP government has not left any sign of the Constitution in the country, all the steps it takes are illegal and undemocratic," he charged.

Mir said after February 7 when Gandhi "lifted the veil over Prime Minister Narendra Modi-(Gautam) Adani relation", the BJP government allegedly rushed to the process of conviction and the subsequent disqualification.

"Gandhi raised questions over the relationship between the two, and how was the money of the country, of its poor people, being 'drained out and deposited' in Adani's accounts," the former JKPCC president said.

Gandhi had not yet approached a higher court for an appeal against his conviction, but the government rushed with the disqualification, he said.

However, he said, Gandhi is not afraid of conviction or disqualification.

"He is not the one to be afraid, neither will his soldiers be afraid. This is a fight for the common people that if this can happen to Gandhi whose family has given so much to the country, including three prime ministers, and sacrificed so much, what can happen to common people," Mir said.

He said it is the responsibility of the Congress party to come out on the roads.

"We will continue this mission. Today, this is a peaceful protest, in the days to come, a nationwide agitation, in which like-minded secular parties will take part, will be launched.

"I am happy to see that those parties whose ideologies did not match the Congress are in this together and have vowed to throw away the Modi government because until this government is thrown away, democracy will not flourish in the country," Mir said.

In Jammu, JKPCC president Vikar Rasool Wani said the fight against the ''vindictive politics'' of the BJP will continue.

Mahatma Gandhi taught us to fight back whenever there is suppression of voice, atrocities on people and the misuse of force and law, he said.

Led by Wani and JKPCC working president Raman Bhalla, scores of party activists held the 'Sankalp Satyagraha' in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statute in the Satwari area of Jammu and shouted slogans against the BJP and the prime minister.

"It is sad that when Rahul Gandhi exposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament, they disqualified him through deceit,'' Wani said.

He said that BJP-led central government has imposed "dictatorship" in J and K for the past nine years and snatched the special status of the erstwhile state illegally.

''Elections are not being held here. This historical state was demoted to a Union Territory by insulting people. It is the state of affairs not only in J-K, but the situation is similar across the country. The BJP is destroying this country,'' he said.

Congress units in other districts like Doda, Kathua, Samba and Poonch also held silent dharnas during the day.