The Indian National Congress on Thursday held nation-wide protests against what party leader KC Venugopal called the 'brutal crackdown' on party leaders at AICC headquarters on 24 Akbar Road, in New Delhi.
"A meeting of AICC General Secretaries, in-charges, MPs & senior leaders in Delhi held today at AICC HQs to discuss plan of action against the police atrocities in AICC yesterday, the brutal crackdown on Congress leaders & further course of actions," Venugopal tweeted.
In Chandigarh, Congress workers protested against the questioning of Rahul Gandhi by ED. They were later detained by the police.
"I can't understand what has Rahul Gandhi done that he has been called for 3 days? Yesterday, Delhi Police barged into AICC office and beat up our MPs. Such vendetta politics has never been seen before. Government shouldn't try to suppress voices," said Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Warring.
In Bengaluru, Karnataka Congress workers raised slogans and protested over the questioning of Rahul Gandhi. A march has been organised from the party office to Raj Bhavan to give a memorandum and complaint letter against BJP.
"It (protest) is our right, we will fight for justice. They (ED) are not taking cases of any BJP leaders, they are harassing only Congress people," Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar told ANI.
The protests caused Traffic snarls in Bengaluru. An ambulance could be seen stuck in the jam.
Shivakumar, CLP leader Siddaramaiah and other leaders and workers of the party detained by Police during their protest in Bengaluru.
In Telangana, protests by Congress workers took a somewhat more violent turn, as party workers could be seen clashing with baton-armed police and setting fires to tires.
Telangana, incidentally, is not a state ruled by the BJP.
Meanwhile, in New Delhi, Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who was among those detained yesterday, told ANII, "Yesterday you saw Police enter Congress HQ. They lathi-charged, detained hundreds of people. Senior people, MLAs, MPs, and office bearers of the party were brutalised. A woman MP's clothes were torn. Such action is uncalled for. Never before has Police has taken such action."
Pilot went on to ask, "Three days before we stated that we'll do satyagrah, we wanted a peaceful march - that was denied. Today, they made sure that we're not able to do any of our protests. In a democracy, if you can't speak out, if you can't protest, how do you do your job as opposition?"
