GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday he had instructed the police to register a case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly “provoking the crowd” that was captured in dramatic television footage facing off with security personnel amid spiralling tensions surrounding a politically charged rally.
He condemned what he called “unruly behaviour” by the Congress that “resulted in a massive traffic jam in Guwahati”. Replying to a video posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Youth Congress President Srinivas BV that captured a group of people trying to remove barricades, Sarma said such “Naxalite tactics are completely alien to our culture”.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi sharpened his attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led central and Assam governments, accusing them of posing roadblocks to his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that is criss-crossing India’s northeastern states.
He alleged that authorities stopped his planned visit to a university in Meghalaya, according to news agency ANI. Rahul Gandhi addressed a crowd from the roof of his vehicle on the Assam-Meghalaya border, exhorting Congress workers to understand their strength and warning students that they are being turned into “slaves” — a frontal attack on the BJP.
As tensions escalated, thousands of Congress workers faced off with the Assam Police and removed security barricades. The Congress camp alleged that they were denied entry into the city of Guwahati on flimsy grounds.
The Assam government had allowed the Congress’s flagship “Bharat Jodo Yatra” on a highway circling the city, but did not allow the rally to enter the inner arterial roads fearing traffic snarls on a weekday.
The Congress party was earlier denied permission for the movement of the yatra through arterial roads in Guwahati, stating that allowing the yatra to move through key roads in the city may lead to traffic disruption. The state administration had asked the rally organisers to take the national highway route as it moves towards lower Assam.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi in Meghalaya while interacting with students claimed that he was “prevented” from meeting the students of a private university in the state. He further stated that Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and “instructed” him to prevent Rahul Gandhi from talking to the students.
“Wanted to come to your university and talk to you, understand what you are facing and try and see in my own little way if I could have helped you. The Home Ministry of India called up the CM of Assam and the CM’s office called up the leadership of your university and said that Rahul Gandhi must not be allowed to speak to the students of this university,” Rahul Gandhi said while addressing the students of the private university from atop his yatra bus in the Assam-Meghalaya border.
“It is not important if Rahul Gandhi comes or does not come. What is important is that you are allowed to listen to anybody you want to listen to. This is not only happening in Assam but in every single university, college or school in India,” he added.
The Congress leader said that efforts are being made to enslave students of North East and India, adding “There is no need for any student to be afraid.”
Rahul Gandhi was scheduled to hold an interaction with students at the University of Science and Technology in Meghalaya on Tuesday morning, however it was later re-scheduled to a hotel in Ri Bhoi district after the university withdrew the permission.
Add A Comment