New Delhi: Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday condemned the dictatorial mindset of the government in suppressing the voice of the people, saying another wave of persecution has been launched with barbaric repression and violence against the people fighting in the streets to protect the Constitution.
In a statement, she said the people have come out on roads across the country to protect against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that are against the fundamental spirit of the Constitution of India. Assault on Baba Saheb Ambedkar's Constitution will not be allowed at any cost, she declared.
She urged the people not to resort to violence on provocation by police and maintain peace and harmony. The country got Independence through truth and non-violence. Today it is necessary that Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution should be protected through the path of truth and non-violence as envisioned by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, Priyanka said.
The BJP Government had made the poor people to stand in queues during demonetisation and now the government will make them stand in queues for NRC and CAA, Priyanka said, noting that a cutoff date will be fixed and every Indian will have to prove his/her identity by producing some valid document. In this manner, most of the poor and deprived people will be persecuted, she said.
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"Illegal arrests of students, intellectuals, social workers, lawyers and journalists in all parts of the country is reprehensible. No one knows where the police is taking the people after rounding them off throughout the country, including the state of Uttar Pradesh," she said.
"It is a dark day for democracy. In Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, police has been keeping in illegal detention several socio-political activists for two days. Their relatives were not informed about the arrests. Shocking reports are percolating through media that they are being beaten up and tortured in police custody," she added.
Priyanka said in Uttar Pradesh, the government has shut down communication and internet services. In Firozabad, Amroha, Moradabad, Bareilly, Rampur, Kanpur and Gorakhpur, the police lathi-charged the peaceful demonstrators. Police is inciting people to violence during the protests and marches everywhere. There have been reports of 15 people killed in police violence in Uttar Pradesh alone, she said.
