Congress launches Satyagraha protest against Rahul Gandhi disqualification | Watch

To protest Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha, the Congress launched a day-long Sankalp Satyagraha in all states on Sunday. The Delhi Police denied permission for the party to observe the protest at Delhi’s Raj Ghat, the memorial dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, but a large number of party workers gathered outside the venue.

Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra staged a satyagraha at Raj Ghat. Asking if a martyred prime minister's son can insult the country, Priyanka Gandhi said, "This is an insult to that prime minister who gave his life." Senior leaders KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid, and Jairam Ramesh, among others were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha.

The satyagraha began at 10 am and is likely to go on till 5 pm. Satyagraha is a form of civil disobedience for the truth.

The Delhi Police said permission was denied due to law and order and traffic reasons. It had imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 CrPC in and around Rajghat. In response to the Delhi Police's action, Venugopal tweeted, "After silencing our voice in Parliament, the government has refused to let us hold a peaceful satyagraha at Bapu's (Mahatma Gandhi) samadhi as well. It has become a habit for the Modi government to disallow every opposition protest. This will not deter us, our fight for truth, against tyranny goes on."

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified on Friday within a day after a Surat court convicted him in a 2019 defamation case. The disqualification will keep Gandhi from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction. Rahul Gandhi updated his Twitter account bio to Dis'Qualified MP on Sunday.

The Congress leader, who is a four-time MP, addressed the media for the first time on Saturday since his disqualification and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scared of his next speech on the Adani issue.

"The prime minister is scared of my next speech on Adani, and I have seen it in his eyes. That is why, first the distraction and then the disqualification," Gandhi said.

He said the "whole game" was meant to distract people from the panic the government was feeling over the matter. Gandhi told reporters that he would keep asking questions on the issue involving industrialist Gautam Adani's business empire and that he will not be scared by disqualification or being put in jail.