Sonia calls CWC meet on Wednesday, appeals for peace

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has summoned a meeting of the party’s Working Committee on Wednesday morning to discuss the violence that left 10 people dead in the national capital, even as she made an appeal for maintaining peace.

Congress condemned the mindless violence in north-east Delhi and urged both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to rise above partisan politics and work for restoration of peace.

“Can you rise to the occasion, leave aside your political partisanship and views and become really not leaders of your parties but leaders of the society,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters here.

He said the Congress had cautioned earlier that some opportunist forces were trying to divide Delhi on caste and communal lines.

“Unfortunately, whatever we had said is turning out to be true,” Surjewala said.

Earlier Tuesday, Gandhi discussed the situation in the national capital with AICC in-charge of Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil here and decided to call a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to deliberate on the issue.

The CWC is expected to come up with suggestions for the Delhi and the Central government to deal with the situation, besides assessing the response of the Union Home Ministry and the Delhi Police in tackling the tense situation over the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Surjewala refused to comment on junior Home Minister G Kishen Reddy’s attack on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi accusing them of fomenting trouble.

“Today is not the day to indulge in partisan politics,” Surjewala said adding that the entire nation was awaiting the response of Modi and Kejriwal to deal with the violent situation in parts of the capital.