Bhopal, Jul 21 (PTI): The Congress on Tuesday held protests at several places in Madhya Pradesh against the detention of Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other leaders during a sit-in near the Prime Minister’s residence in Delhi.
Congress MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly Umang Singhar, staged a protest outside the Chief Minister’s office on the Assembly premises. State Congress president Jitu Patwari and other party leaders and workers demonstrated outside Raj Bhavan.
Singhar alleged that the detention of senior Congress leaders, including Gandhi, during the protest against alleged police action on students was the “shameful face of dictatorship” of the BJP government.
“From Delhi to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, we are fighting for the dignity and justice of students. The voice of truth cannot be dragged or arrested. We will not back down in this fight for democracy,” he said.
During the protest in the Assembly premises, Legislative Affairs Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya reached the spot and had a heated exchange with Singhar.
Singhar alleged that Vijayvargiya refused to discuss the students’ issue in the Assembly and referred to them as “cockroaches”. He also alleged that the minister came to “threaten” Congress MLAs sitting on a dharna outside the Chief Minister’s office.
Singhar said the Congress MLAs would continue their protest until Vijayvargiya apologised to the students.
Patwari, in a post on X, said Rahul Gandhi was raising the voice of students across the country, but his detention sent a message that the government wanted to suppress their voices instead of addressing their concerns.
Soon after Patwari began his protest, police arrived at the spot and detained the protesters. They were later released.
Patwari then reached the Assembly and joined the protest by Congress MLAs. The protesting leaders later left the Assembly premises.
Besides Bhopal, Congress leaders held demonstrations on main roads or outside district magistrates’ offices in Satna, Sidhi, Burhanpur, Shivpuri and other places across the state.
During the protest near the Prime Minister’s residence in Delhi, police had detained Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other leaders. They were taken away in a bus and released later.
Congress leaders had staged a sit-in near 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raising slogans such as “Prime Minister resign”, “Hooliganism will not be tolerated” and “Give justice to the students”. PTI MAS APL APL
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
