Hyderabad: The state Congress participated in the nationwide ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ to protest the disqualification of party leader Rahul Gandhi as an MP, by putting up an unprecedented show of unity at the Gandhi Bhavan here on Sunday. Many rebel leaders who had stayed away from the state party headquarters for long turned up for the protest.
Speaking during the satyagraha, TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy said that like the British East India Company, the Adani Group was trying to take over the resources of the country.
He said that on August 24, 1608, the British had landed at Surat ostensibly for business. They occupied the nation by 1757 and turned the people into slaves for 200 years.
“History is repeating as Adani, with the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has slowly taken control of ports, airports and highways. Similar to the trust placed on British then, the people are trusting the Adani Group with active support from Modi and BJP, who will be repeating the same tactic,” Revanth Reddy said.
The TPCC chief called upon the younger generation to understand how the ‘British Janata Party’ would help the Adani Group devour the country’s wealth. “The new element is now the British Janata Party. We paid for negligence then and cannot afford a similar strike,” he said.
Earlier, responding to queries from mediapersons, Revanth Reddy said that the party high command may decide on the en masse resignation of Congress MPs. “There is an ongoing debate within the party about MPs resigning. A decision in this direction will be taken after thorough discussions,” he said.
At the Sankalp Satyagraha at Gandhi Bhavan, leaders like party MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and MLA T. Jagga Reddy, who had avoided visiting the Gandhi Bhavan for months, joined the programme, which also saw the rare presence of veteran leader K. Jana Reddy.
The party leadership expressed satisfaction over the way all the seniors stood united. Besides, the re-entry of former PCC president D. Srinivas gave a much-needed boost to the party.
“Rahul Gandhi, who tried to unite the nation, has turned an eyesore to the BJP leadership. It is high time that the BJP is taught a lesson. By standing united, everyone should strive hard to bring back the Congress back to power,” said Venkat Reddy.
Jagga Reddy said the BJP had shown that it could stoop to such levels. “The BJP is afraid of the way Rahul Gandhi exposed it and hence, is conspiring to politically corner him,” he said and added that Rahul Gandhi had rejected the Prime Minister’s post when offered by Dr Manmohan Singh but Modi had ousted L.K. Advani.
Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar Reddy accused the BJP government of orchestrating a drama to defend Modi from the simple question about the owner of the '20,000 crore that went to Adani's shell companies. He gave a timeline to link the defamation case verdict of the Surat court and Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification with his speech in the Lok Sabha against the Adani group.
“This lightning speed clearly shows that some forces were working behind to silence Rahul Gandhi,” Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged.
The programme was attended by AICC general secretary Tariq Anwar, AICC Telangana incharge Manikrao Thakre, AICC secretaries Nadeem Javed and Rohith Chowdhary, MLAs D. Sridhar Babu, Seethakka, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, V. Hanumantha Rao, M. Anjan Kumar Yadav and Ponnam Prabhakar, among others.
As part of intensifying protests against the Union government, the party will be holding demonstrations at the district headquarters on Monday. On Tuesday, the protests will be organised in Assembly constituencies.
