Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 21 Jul: Joining the Indian National Congress party’s nationwide protest to express solidarity with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, who is being interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the National Herald case, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) hit the streets in Itanagar on Thursday to show its support.
As many as 100 Congress workers, led by APCC president Nabam Tuki, undertook a foot march from the Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan to IG Park, holding placards and sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government.
“The rally has been organised in order to express solidarity and support towards our leader Sonia Gandhi and the Gandhi family, whom the government at the Centre under the leadership of PM Modi is harassing, using the ED law, which is an injustice towards the family,” Tuki told media persons.
He said that the ED, being an independent institution, takes up cases which are genuine. “However, this time the law enforcement agency turned out to be weak and follows the directions of the Centre, which is a demerit for the country.”
He claimed that “the case was already closed many years back as the National Herald is a newspaper based on non-profit organisation, and the ED has reopened a dead case at the direction of the government to harass the Congress leaders.”
Former minister and APCC acting president Bosiram Siram said, “Ever since the Modi-led government came to power, the price of every commodity is soaring up with each passing day, whereas the BJP blames the Congress for not doing anything in the last 75 years.”
“We do not want price rise,” Siram said, and criticised the saffron party’s ‘achhe din’ slogan, saying that the BJP “does not care for the common masses.”
He said that Manmohan Singh, during his tenure as the PM, announced a package of Rs 24 crore for constructing two- and four-lane highways in Arunachal Pradesh “and the projects are still underway.”
The senior Congress leader also claimed that “no single announcement for development exclusively for the state has been announced.”
