Congress holds 'Sankalp Satyagraha' at Rajghat over Rahul's ouster from Lok Sabha

Earlier, there was confusion about the protest as Delhi Police had denied Congress permission to hold 'Sankalp Satyagraha'

Congress on Sunday stepped up its attack against the ruling BJP over the conviction and disqualification of Rahul Gandhi with a 'satyagraha' at Rajghat, where his sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a coward and dared him to jail her too.

Party president Mallikarjun Kharge too joined in the attack against the Prime Minister by referring to Modi's "puppy" remarks on the Gujarat riot victims. Kharge said that a person who called people "dogs" was talking about OBCs and wondered why Modi was worried when Rahul and the Congress talked about those who fled with public money.

Track the latest developments on Rahul Gandhi's disqualification here

The day-long 'Samvidhan Bachao, Loktantra Bachao Sankalp Satyagraha' began at Rajghat at 10 am, though initially the Delhi Police had refused permission to hold the protest, which the Congress was holding against Rahul's “erroneous conviction and disqualification”, citing law and order and traffic issues as well as the imposition of Section 144 of CrPC.

Addressing the gathering, Priyanka spoke about BJP's attacks against Congress and the Gandhi family and about the issues, including the Adani affair, being raised by Rahul.

"The Prime Minister is a coward. Slap a case on me too (for saying this). Send me to jail. But the truth is that the Prime Minister is a coward. He is hiding behind power. He is arrogant," she said

Her comments came a day after Rahul said that his conviction and disqualification came as the Prime Minister is “scared” of his “next speech” in Parliament on the Adani issue.

In a spirited defence of her brother, Priyanka asked how a martyred father’s son, who walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and spoke about uniting people, could insult the country.

As hundreds of Congress workers sat in the protest, Priyanka recalled how Rahul walked the whole way from Teen Murti to Veer Bhumi, near Rajghat where he performed the last rites of their father Rajiv Gandhi.

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"I still have that image of my father's body draped in the tricolour and my brother performing the last rites—400 metres away from where I stand. My martyred father is insulted in Parliament. That martyred father's son is called anti-national, Mir Jafar. Ministers have insulted my mother in Parliament. One of the Chief Ministers said Rahul does not know who his father is," she said.

"The Prime Minister said in Parliament that we do not use the Nehru surname. Our family has been insulted. The Kashmiri Pandit community has been insulted. But there is no case against you. There is no jail, there is no disqualification. What did my brother do? He hugged the Prime Minister. We may have different ideologies but it is not an ideology of hatred," she said.

Referring to the attack on the Gandhi family, she said her family has nurtured the democracy of this country with their blood. "You (BJP) talk about 'pariwarvaad' (dynastic politics). I want to ask who was Lord Ram? Was he a 'pariwarvaadi'? He went to 'vanvas' to honour the traditions of his family and country. Were the Pandavas 'pariwarvaadi' just because they fought to keep family honour intact? Should we be ashamed that our family members were martyred and that the tricolour has our family's blood?" she said.

Priyanka said Rahul has degrees from Harvard and Cambridge but his opponents called him ‘pappu’ but after his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra', they realised he is not a ‘pappu’ seeing the support he garnered as people walked with him.

She said the Modi government claims that they have done so much for the country and are capable of doing more things, “Then why can’t you bring down LPG prices, give more jobs…They are not uplifting common people but those like Adani?” she said.

In its communication to state units asking them to organise day-long protests, the Congress central leadership said that the actions against Rahul are a "strong signal that the world's largest democracy is under serious threat".

"Trembled by his fearlessness and unstoppable fight against the misuse of power by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help his dear friend Gautam Adani and fearing that he would expose their nexus in Parliament, the entire Modi regime is resorting to such crooked measures to silence his voice," the communication said.

Strongly condemning the "erroneous conviction and disqualification", it said Rahul is "not alone, millions of Congressmen and crores of people irrespective of their political affiliations are with him in this fight for truth and justice".