The Congress Party in Shimla led by Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu held a ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ protest, at the Ridge, against the disqualification of former party chief Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha.

The Congress leaders along with several Cabinet ministers participated in the candlelight protest.

Chief Minister Sukhu, while slamming the union government said that it can stop Rahul Gandhi in parliament, but not in public.

“People and political parties did not face the situation that has arisen today in the country due to bad and anti-people / policies of the Union government. Rahul Gandhi is the voice of democracy and the party is the biggest political party. You can suppress his voice in the parliament but you can’t suppress him in the people’s court. He does not do politics for MP or for the seat of Prime Minister. Democracy is under threat today and we will have to save it,” said the Chief Minister.

While Cabinet minister Vikramaditya Singh during the protest alleged that democracy has been “throttled and killed” making the situation critical.
“The Parliament is the temple of democracy but the opposition is not being allowed to take up the issues and is not able to raise their voice. The situation is critical democracy has been throttled and killed. For those who are trying to raise the voice of people, cases are being registered against them. We will have to fight this battle, if these kinds of atmospheres continue in the country the bright future of the country is in dark,” Singh said.

Rahul Gandhi, on Friday, was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, a day after a Surat court sentenced him to two years imprisonment in a defamation case filed against him over his ‘Modi surname’ remark.

The decision came pertaining to his remark made in April 2019, where he had said “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname” at a Lok Sabha election rally at Kolar in Karnataka. The court approved Gandhi’s bail on a surety and stayed the sentence for 30 days to allow him to approach the higher courts.

Congress party held nationwide Sankalap Satyagraha to protest against the move to disqualify Rahul Gandhi.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra trained her guns on the ruling BJP and vowed to keep fighting for the people at the party’s Sankalap Satyagraha to protest against the move to disqualify her brother and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“Who thinks that they can silence us by scaring and humiliating us? Listen, we will not stop, I will see to it that the hard-earned money of the public is not being looted and given to few people,” Priyanka Gandhi said in a hard-hitting attack on the ruling party at the Centre.

“It was my family (Nehru-Gandhi) who nurtured the democracy of this country with their blood,” she said.