Priyanka Gandhi calls Jamia crackdown attack on India's soul

After sitting sombrely for two hours at India Gate as she led a protest against the crackdown on Jamia Milia students, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra mounted a scathing attack on the government and termed the Sunday's action as “dictatorial”.

She said Congress workers will be fighting against the government.

She termed the crackdown as “an attack on the soul of India” and thundered: “Why is the prime minister silent on economy and rapes?”

Her comments assumed significance as these come on a day when former BJP leader Kuldeep Singh Sengar was convicted of rape in the horrific Unnao case.

Earlier the Congress general secretary, along with senior party leaders and members of the working committee, marched to the heart of the capital on the seventh anniversary of one of the most brutal gang rapes that shook the national capital -- the Nirbhaya case.

As she sat there in solidarity with her supporters, students raising slogans against police atrocities swelled into hundreds as more and more Congress workers joined in to raise their voice against the newly enacted Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019.

Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, AK Antony, general secretary KC Venugopal, Ambika Soni and Mukul Wasnik were also present at the sit-in.

Many women members, including Sushmita Dev, chanted slogans as Priyanka Gandhi termed the police action in Jamia campus on Sunday evening as “barbaric”.

She said the government has attacked the Constitution by enacting the new citizenship law and that Congress will fight to save the Constitution.