KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, MP, inaugurates a dharna organised by the District Congress Committee at the Gandhi Park in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as MP.
| Photo Credit: S. MAHINSHA
Congress workers mobilised in strength across Kerala on Sunday to protest against Rahul Gandhi’s expulsion from the Lok Sabha last week after a court in Gujarat found him guilty of criminal defamation.
At the behest of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), party workers organised well-attended public meetings and sit-in protests at the district-level to decry the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government’s ‘trespasses on democracy.’
‘Time for appeal denied’
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president (KPCC) K. Sudhakaran inaugurated the Statewide mustering of party workers and Congress sympathisers at Gandhi Park in Thiruvananthapuram. Mr. Sudhakaran said the Union government’s visceral fear that Rahul Gandhi would expose the ‘Modi-Adani nexus’ in the Parliament had resulted in the latter’s hasty debarment barely a day after the court sentence. The Centre denied Mr. Gandhi time to appeal against the magistrate court’s order, he said.
Mr. Sudhakaran also took strong exception to Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] State secretary M.V. Govindan’s statement that the CPI(M)‘s opposition to Mr. Gandhi’s expulsion was a principled political stance against the “anti-democratic Modi regime” and the Congress should not construe it as support for its leader. Mr. Govindan had earlier said that the CPI(M) had always taken a stand against undemocratic actions, like the BJP and the RSS using Central agencies like the ED and the CBI, to target Opposition parties. “Something like that has happened in Rahul Gandhi’s case,” he had said.
A reminder
Mr. Sudhakaran said Mr. Govindan appeared to be helping the BJP by disavowing Mr. Gandhi. He reminded the CPI(M) that Jawaharlal Nehru had nominated CPI(M) leader A.K. Gopalan as the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha to give voice to dissenters. “Those who bear AKG’s legacy are morally bound to join forces with the Congress to resist Mr. Modi who has scant respect for democracy,” he said.
Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan, who inaugurated the rally in Kochi, said Mr. Govindan’s political double-speak exposed CPI(M)‘s duplicity. “The CPI(M)‘s survival as a political entity now depends on rallying with the forces of democracy and secularism set in motion by Mr. Gandhi,” he said.
On police action
Mr. Satheesan said the CPI(M)-led State government had unleashed the police against Congress workers protesting Mr. Gandhi’s debarment to appease the BJP. Senior leader Ramesh Chennithala inaugurated the protest in Alappuzha.
United Democratic Front (UDF) convener M.M. Hassan; KPCC working president Kodikunnil Suresh, MP; Sashi Tharoor, MP; and DCC president Thiruvananthapuram Palode Ravi were present.
(With inputs from PTI)
