Uttarakhand Congress protests 'misuse' of central agencies against opposition leaders

Dehradun, Aug 22 (PTI) The Uttarakhand Congress on Thursday hit the streets here in protest against, what they alleged, the Narendra Modi government's protection to its capitalist friends like Gautam Adani and the continuous misuse of central investigation agencies like the ED and the CBI against opposition party leaders.

Led by PCC president Karan Mahara and vice president Suryakant Dhasmana, thousands of Congress workers took out a procession from the party's state office here on Rajpur Road to the ED office at Cross Road and gheraoed it. They also raised anti-government slogans.

Talking to reporters on the spot, Mahara said Hindenburg has made a shocking revelation about a scam of billions of hard-earned money of the people of the country.

"It has exposed the Modi-Adani nexus. The Congress party strongly opposes the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for squandering public money on its capitalist allies and demands that a JPC be formed to investigate the Modi-SEBI-Adani scam," he said.

The way the central investigation agencies are being "misused to harass the opposition party leaders" for opposing the "anti-people policies" of the Modi government raises questions on their impartiality and functioning, he said.

The Congress party strongly condemns the "protection" being given by the Modi government to its "capitalist friends" and the "continuous misuse of central investigation agencies against the opposition party leaders", Mahara said.

"The Narendra Modi government is waiving off thousands of crores of rupees of its capitalist friends and putting its burden on the common people of the country. The scam of thousands of crores of rupees mentioned in the Hindenburg report is a burning example if it," he said.

Inflation and unemployment have been at their peak during the last two tenures of the Modi government, he said.

By implementing schemes like Agniveer, the future of the youth of the country has been ruined. The farmers of the country are forced to leave farming and come out on the streets for their legitimate demands.

The debt-ridden farmers are being forced to commit suicide because they are not getting proper prices for their crops, Mahara said.

Incidents of gang rape and murder of women during the 10-year tenure of the Modi government have shamed the entire humanity, he said.

Citing the examples of Ankita Bhandari murder case, brutal rape and murder of a female doctor in Kolkata, brutal murder of a female nurse after rape near Rudrapur, rape of a young girl from Punjab at ISBT in Dehradun, he said these incidents have proved that 'Beti Padhao-Beti Bachao' is a mere slogan of the Modi government.

After their demonstration, the Congress leaders including Mahara, former PCC president Ganesh Godiyal, former minister Hira Singh Bisht, Harak Singh Rawat, Navprabhat, state vice president organisation Mathuradutt Joshi, former MP Pradeep Tamta, Mahendra Singh Pal, former MLA Ranjit Singh Rawat, Jot Singh Gunsola, Rajkumar, general secretary Vijay Saraswat and other courted arrest and were detained at the police lines. PTI ALM ALM KSS KSS