Amit Shah (left) and Mallikarjun Kharge (right)
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wrote letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah the day after Rahul Gandhi-led workers and Assam police clashed on the Guwahati city borders. Letter is pleading for Mr. Gandhi’s and the other participants in his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’s security to be guaranteed.
FIR filed against Rahul Gandhi
This follows a FIR against Mr. Gandhi and other Congress leaders by the Assam Police for the altercation. Among other things, they are accused of criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, and breach of peace. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s statement that Congress workers’ “naxalite tactics” are “not part of Assamese culture” prompted the filing of the lawsuit.
M Kharge takes letter to Shah n social media
Shri @RahulGandhi and the #BharatJodoNyayYatra has faced serious security issues in Assam in the last few days.
My letter to Home Minister, Shri @AmitShah underlining the same. pic.twitter.com/FHLG5pg5Bz
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) January 24, 2024
Mr. Kharge enumerated “several instances where the Assam Police has been found wanting in providing adequate security” to which Mr. Gandhi is entitled as a Z+ protectee in his letter to the Home Minister. Then he brought up the vandalism of Congress posters, the assault on state party Chief Bhupen Borah by BJP workers, and the blocking of the Congress yatra on January 21.
“In all of the troubling events mentioned above, the Assam Police has systematically stood by and/or allowed BJP workers to come closer and closer to the convoy of Shri. Rahul Gandhi, breaching his security cordon, and endangering his physical security and that of his team,” Mr Kharge wrote.
Also Read: ‘Assam CM Himanta Sarma Is Nation’s Most Corrupt Politician’: Rahul Gandhi
Congress accuses Assam CM of intervention
None of those involved in these incidents, he said, had been arrested despite the presence of evidence in the public domain. “As the risk increases and as the Yatra proceeds as planned, we request your intervention to ensure that the Chief Minister of Assam and the Director General of Police, Assam ensure that no such untoward incident takes place which may lead to grave personal injury to Shri Rahul Gandhi or any members of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” he added.
Congress leaders have been accusing Mr. Sarma of causing obstacles during the yatra. The altercation that occurred yesterday at the Guwahati city limits happened when police forbade Congressmen from using city roads. Fearing traffic jams, the administration had earlier refused to allow the yatra to pass through the city’s main thoroughfares. Congressmen attempted to breach the barriers after calling the justification for denying them permission “frivolous,” which resulted in an altercation with the police.
