Congress workers took out a massive rally to the Enforcement Directorate office in the city and later held a dharna, led by TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy and attended by senior leaders Bhatti Vikramarka, T. Jeevan Reddy, and Madhu Yaskhi Goud among others, alleging deliberate harassment of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the closed National Herald case.
The protests also turned a bit violent as Youth Congress activists set a scooter on fire raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing him of targeting Ms. Gandhi for raising her voice against the :anti-people policies” of the government.
The rally was taken from the Indira Gandhi statue on Necklace Road to the ED regional office. The massive gathering of Congress workers wearing black clothes and carrying black balloons led to traffic disruption on several roads around the Hussainsagar and Basheerbagh where the ED office is located.
At the protest at the ED office, Mr. Revanth Reddy said that the entire Telangana society was behind Ms. Gandhi and that Mr. Modi’s effort was only to insult Ms. Gandhi using the central agencies that had turned into Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) extended wings. While the entire nation is suffering from the failures of Mr. Modi on the economic front and rising prices making people’s lives miserable the BJP wanted to divert the nation’s attention fearing discussion in Parliament.
Recalling Ms. Gandhi’s family sacrifices since Independence days, he said Ms. Sonia Gandhi had been serving people despite losing her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi and husband Rajiv Gandhi to terrorist activities. “Such a strong person will not be cowed by ED threats and Mr Modi’s vendetta politics,” he said. Mr. Reddy called upon people of Telangana to back Ms. Gandhi putting aside their personal and political affiliations as a mark of respect to the person who made Telangana’s formation possible. “Let’s show our gratitude to her.”
Mr. Vikramarka said the BJP was afraid of Rahul Gandhi exposing their failures through the Bharat Jodo Yatra and was trying to demoralise using the ED. Mr. Modi’s efforts to wipe out the opposition parties using central agencies will never fructify, he said and the Gandhi family will never be afraid of such false cases.
MLC Jeevan Reddy said Young India was the pride of India’s Independence movement and it was a shame that Modi’s government was even insulting the Independence struggle. Mr. Madhu Yaskhi Goud said the case was closed by the BJP government in 2015 and now it was reopened only to get some vicarious pleasure.
AICC secretaries Bose Raju and G. Chinna Reddy, TPCC working presidents Anjan Kumar Yadav and Geeta Reddy, former PCC chiefs Ponnala Lakshmaiah and V. Hanmantha Rao and senior leaders Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Mohd Shabbir Ali, Ponnam Prabhakar, Mallu Ravi, Vem Narender Reddy, Sricilla Rajaiah, Maheshwar Reddy, Kodanda Reddy, Niranjan, Youth Congress president, Shivsena Reddy, Anil Kumar Yadav, NSUI president Balmoori Venkat, Women’s Congress president Sunita Rao and SC cell president Preetham were among those who participated.
