Only hours after the Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu rejected the Congress-led impeachment motion against the Chief Justice of India, Deepak Misra, the Congress party launched a fierce attack on the Bhartiya Janata Party. “We will not allow the BJP and RSS even to touch the Constitution, and neither will the country in 2019,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi said addressing party workers at the Talkatora Stadium.
On April 23, he launched “Save the Constitution’ campaign to safeguard the Constitution and protect the rights of Dalits and backward classes. The national campaign will run at the village level till April 14, 2019. He said that the party will work for the people of India to protect them, their ideas and build their future, no matter how much effort BJP puts in ‘we will not allow them to toxicate the Constitution.” He added that for the first time a government shut down the Parliament, when “occasionally its the opposition.”
Excerpts from Speech
On PM Modi: Gandhi said that “Modi ji has interest only in Modi Ji. PM is only interested in becoming the Prime Minister of India…… he only wants the country to hear his Mann ki Baat.”
Quoting from the PM’s his book Karmyogi and he said that Modi thinks that a person from backward class who cleans toilets and gutters gets spiritual happiness. “This government has no place for Dalit and backward class people in their hearts. The atrocities against backward classes are increasing, and the person who sees manual scavengers getting spiritual happiness does not speak a word after all these incidents,” said Gandhi.
Challenging PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi said “just give me 15 minutes for a debate with the PM and I will grill him on Rafael deal, Nirav Modi. He will not be able to speak.”
The protest comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s order diluting the SC/ST Atrocities Act, which has triggered a massive outrage in the community leading to violent protests across the country.