Congress Protest Live Updates: Congress MPs to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan over price rise
Congress Protest Live: The Congress party on Friday will march to Rashtrapati Bhavan to register its protest against issues of inflation, unemployment and GST on food items. Even as the Delhi Police shot off a letter to the party on Wednesday denying permission for the march, Congress MP Digvijaya Singh Thursday said, “All Congress MPs will march to Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow to raise the issues such as price rise and inflation.”
The Congress MPs have been protesting against the issues both inside and outside the Parliament and will kick off their “Chalo Rashtrapati Bhawan” march from the Parliament. In the capital cities across India, the state units would organise marches to Raj Bhavans in which MLAs, MLCs, former MPs and senior leaders will also take part. After a meeting on strategies for the protest earlier this week, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said: “Chaired a meeting of senior leaders and functionaries of Delhi PCC to plan strategies for Congress’s mass protest, Rashtrapati Bhavan March and PM House Gherao protest in Delhi on 5th August, against price rise, unemployment and higher GST imposition on essential items.”
However, at a press conference on Wednesday, Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said the party received a letter from the Delhi Police denying permission for a demonstration and march to the Prime Minister’s residence and Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday. Maken was addressing the media after the ED sealed an office in the building of Young Indian — a firm linked to the Gandhi family, which had acquired Associated Journals Limited, the publisher of National Herald newspaper. “The AICC had issued a circular last week announcing our plan to hold a nationwide demonstration on August 5 on the issue of price rise, unemployment and hike in GST rates on food items. According to the plan…MPs were to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan and Congress leaders were to stage a demonstration outside the residence of the Prime Minister… Today, we received a letter from the DCP saying we cannot stage any demonstration on August 5,” Maken said.
