The Newz Radar
Dispur: India’s opposition Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (Jan 24) again resumed his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra as he moved ahead from Barpeta in the Indian state of Assam, a day after they faced a roadblock while trying to enter Guwahati city.
Many Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal, were booked under charges of damage to public property, violence, provocation, and assault on police personnel by the Assam Police.
Before kickstarting the Yatra’s 11th day, Gandhi addressed a gathering of people and launched another attack on Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while again calling him “the most corrupt CM” yet.
“The Chief Minister of Assam (Himanta Biswa Sarma) spreads hate all the time and takes away your (referring to the public) lands. He is the most corrupt chief minister,” Gandhi said.
The BJP-led Assam government has been accused by the Congress of trying to make attempts to hinder their Yatra since it started entering the state on Thursday (Jan 18).
The Congress and the state government had a showdown after the party workers clashed as their entry into Guwahati was restricted.
The state director general of police (DGP) was directed by Sarma to register a case against the Congress MP for allegedly ‘provoking crowd’. “Naxalite tactics” were alien to Assam’s culture,” said the chief minister, in a post on social platform X.
During a press conference, Gandhi slammed back at Sarma and said that he is one of the most corrupt chief ministers in the country.
“Clear problem in Assam, chief minister of this state one of the most corrupt CMs in the country… What the Assam CM is doing against the yatra is actually helping the yatra,” said Gandhi.
“We are getting the publicity that we may not have got otherwise. The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has become a main issue in Assam. Preventing from visiting the temple and college… it is their style. Intimidation tactics, we are not intimidated by them, we are not afraid of them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and appealed for his intervention to ensure Gandhi as well as other participants of Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s security.
In the letter, Kharge listed “several instances where the Assam Police has been found wanting in providing adequate security” to Gandhi, who is entitled to as a Z+ protectee.
“In all of the troubling events mentioned above, the Assam Police has systematically stood by and/or allowed BJP workers to come closer and closer to the convoy of Shri. Rahul Gandhi, breaching his security cordon and endangering his physical security and that of his team,” Kharge added.
