Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi lead Congress leaders in a protest march to Rashtrapati Bhawan
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi led the party's leaders and parliamentarians in a march to the President's House Rashtrapati Bhavan this afternoon to flag what they call rising intolerance.
The march, which saw Congress leaders walk up Raisina hill carrying placards decrying communalism, comes after Mrs Gandhi had met President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday evening for a one-on-one meeting. The Congress submitted a memorandum to the President urging him to use his Constitutional powers to ensure an end to the "the atmosphere of intolerance, intemperate behaviour, violence and communal polarisation," say Congress sources.
Before they set out from Parliament House, where a large number of Congress workers and local leaders had also gathered, senior Congress leaders offered flowers at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. The stretch from Parliament to the President's House is under prohibitory orders, disallowing assembly of more than 10 people, and was heavily policed during the march. The police cordoned off the marching Congress leaders with a thick rope.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Congress in an election rally in Bihar, countering the charge of rising intolerance under his regime by invoking the 1984 violence.
"Doob maro (drown in shame)... Try to remember that day in 1984 when Sikhs were being massacred in Delhi and all over India two-three days after Indira Gandhi was killed. There were serious charges against the Congress party and Congress leaders...," PM Modi said, referring to the mob killings of Sikhs in the days after the assassination of the former Prime Minister on October 31 that year. "And today on November 2, Congress party is lecturing on tolerance," the PM said.
The Congress hit back, charging PM Modi with being "an endorser of intolerance by his studied silence." Referring to the 2002 riots in Gujarat, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said: "Like in 2002, Modi has forgotten Raj Dharma in 2015."
President Mukherjee had last month spoken on at least three different occasions, emphasising the need for preserving pluralism, tolerance and multiplicity.