The Congress on Monday lambasted the Centre and reiterated its support for the party’s youth wing, under fire for staging a “shirtless” protest at the AI summit here last week.
Seven Youth Congress members had been arrested and its president, Uday Chib, was being questioned at Tilak Marg police station till the filing of this report.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Sunday accused the Congress of “shamelessly” hurling invectives at him and praising the protesters.
Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said in a video message on Monday: “Modiji, do you talk about shame? Let me tell you what shame is. Your name, your minister’s, and your friend’s name appearing together in the Epstein files, being linked to such a vile criminal — this is shameful. The trade deal you’ve made with America, in which you’ve sold out the country — this is shameful.”
He added: “The entire country knows that the ongoing case against Adani in America has kept you up at night — because it’s a case against the BJP and your financial architecture. For 14 months, no action has been taken on it — this is shameful.... I and the lion-hearted warriors of the Congress party will continue to defend the country — we won’t retreat even an inch.”
Seven Congress MPs, including Sasikanth Senthil, held a media conference against the crackdown on the party colts.
Senthil said the Youth Congress activists had staged a “democratic and peaceful” protest against unemployment and other issues after failing to get any concrete answer from the government. “We are very proud of the Youth Congress.... We were told that the parents of our Youth
Congress colleagues have been picked up. Delhi police must have much bigger and better cases to solve than this,” he said.
The MPs demanded that the police disclose how many people they had arrested.