New Delhi: The Congress party's rally against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government on Thursday turned violent when the members of its youth wing, trying to break barricades, clashed with the police, which had to resort to mild lathi charge to disperse them.
The incident took place at the Jantar Mantar where the Rahul Gandhi-backed Indian Youth Congress (IYC) members were holding a rally, called Yuva Aakrosh, to highlight the failures of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.
Senior Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Digvijay Singh were “likely to attend” the rally, but there is no confirmation yet.
The decision to hold the rally in Delhi, highlighting what the Youth Congress calls Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “failure to bring about the changes he promised”, was taken by the IYC after many in the youth wing felt the party’s old guard wasn’t doing enough to oppose the BJP-led government.
“The BJP government had made several promises. But nothing has come of them. The aim of our rally is to expose the BJP’s lies and show the people the reality of Narendra Modi’s performance in the first 100 days,” Rajeev Satav, IYC president, said.
Today's rally is being attended by party workers and supporters from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The IYC has termed the rally a “show of strength and intent”.
The IYC’s protests to expose the “failures of the Modi government” had begun earlier this month. It began under the banner ‘100 days - Modi fail’, exposing what the Youth Congress claimed was the “gap between the promises made by Modi and the actual reality”.
At the time, the Youth Congress had said the BJP government was trying to foil the protests, pointing out that they were not given permission by the Delhi Police to protest at Jantar Mantar.
Satav then said, “Holding peaceful protests is our Constitutional right and this government attempted to subvert it by denying us permission… but we decided not to give in.”
The IYC has been carrying out a series of flash protests in the city. “Since the BJP government is repeatedly declining us permission to protest and highlight its failures, we will persist and fight until we are granted permission by the authorities. We have sought permission for our rally on September 25 and are waiting to hear from the authorities,” Satav said.
(zee)