The Congress held a protest titled ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ near Gandhi Circle, Old Goa, over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a Member of Parliament.
Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, Aldona MLA Adv Carlos Ferreira, Quepem MLA Altone D’Costa, GPCC chief Amit Patkar, women chief Beena Naik and others were present for the protest.
Also extending support to the Congress protest was NCP State president Jose Philip D’Souza along with other party members.
Speaking on the occasion, Yuri Alemao slammed the BJP government for resorting to dictatorship in the country by trampling democracy.
“The BJP government could not face the questions posed by Rahul Gandhi and hence they resorted to such antics,” Alemao said while adding that the Congress would raise the issue in the forthcoming Assembly as well.
“To disqualify Gandhi, a decision was taken within 24 hours, but they can’t take a decision on those who defected from the Congress to the BJP,” Alemao said while stating it proves that the BJP is anti-democratic.
Stating that the Congress stands with Rahul Gandhi, Aldona MLA Ferreira said that the party will not be cowed down and will stand strong.
“When Gandhi made no allegations against the complainant, the complainant does not have any right to file defamation,” Adv Ferreira informed and stated that in such cases, the maximum sentence is very rarely given.
“They have used every trick in the book to see to it that Gandhi was disqualified. Otherwise, why would the BJP give clarifications if they had not done anything?” he further posed.
MLA Altone D’Costa said that the democracy in the country is under threat under the BJP government and the need of the hour is for all the parties to come together because the same treatment could be meted out to other party leaders.
“We need to send this corrupt government home. Otherwise, we will have to face worse consequences in the future,” D’Costa opined.
NCP State president Jose Philip D’Souza said that the party is supporting Congress on the issue as there is a dictatorship in the country.
“We can never foretell that the same thing could not happen to us because everybody can see how the voice of the common man has been trampled upon by the BJP government,” D’Souza said while urging like-minded parties to come together on a common platform to fight such injustice.
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