Herald case: Congress workers stage protest against Centre

On a day when Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi appeared in National Herald case, Congress workers on Saturday took out a nationwide protest against NDA government. 

Congress leaders and workers burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and took out a protest march in Lucknow against the NDA government, accusing it of falsely implicating leaders of opposition parties including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. Led by Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Nirmal Khatri and AICC secretary assistant in-charge of state affairs Prakash Joshi, partymen took out a padyatra from the state party office to General Post Office here to lodge their protest against the Centre.

The partymen shouted slogans against the NDA government accusing them of framing Congress leaders to harass them and targeting Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the Herald case. Youth Congress activists burnt Modi’s effigy at busy Hazratganj Crossing to mark the protest.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul sought and got bail in the National Herald case after a local court rejected complainant Subramanian Swamy’s opposition to the relief for them on the ground they are influential and can flee the country. 

Congress workers staged protests at several places and burnt effigies of the Prime Minister in Madhya Pradesh against the petition filed against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and others in the high-voltage National Herald case.

The workers courted arrest, alleging that Subramanian Swamy, the complainant in the Herald case, was acting at Modi’s behest.

State Congress chief Arun Yadav said in Sehore that all the allegations against Sonia and Rahul were false, and Swamy raised the issue only because he had been obliged by the Centre. “Modi has given Swamy a franchise to defame Sonia and Rahul,” he said.

In Bhopal, district Congress chief P C Sharma led the protests at Roshanpura square where too an effigy of the Prime Minister was set on fire. Similar protests were held at Jabalpur, Gwalior, Indore and other district headquarters, the police and Congress sources said.

Congress leaders and workers in Himachal Pradesh carried out a “silent” march towards Ridge Maidan with black bands tied around their mouths, defying prohibitory orders. 

Congress activists, led by Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sukhvinder Singh Sukkhu, marched from state party headquarters at Rajiv Bhawan to Ridge Maidan and squatted under Mahatma Gandhi’s statue.