At ‘Dandi March’, Congress accuses Modi govt of misusing sedition laws

The yatra was organised by the state unit of the Congress Seva Dal. The Dandi yatra was taken out by Mahatma Gandhi on March 12, 1930, to oppose the salt laws imposed by the then British government.

Alleging that RSS-ABVP activists were forcibly trying to impose their saffron ideology in universities and educational institutions, ever since Modi became the Prime Minister in May 2014, the Congress leader said that, “This resulted in suicide committed by Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula of Hyderabad Central University and JNU research scholar Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on sedition charges and branded anti-national” for seeking “azadi” from “poverty and corruption”.

Stating that the BJP government was resorting to these tactics for diverting attention of the people from core issues of inflation, unemployment, agriculture crisis, economic slowdown and internal security facing the country, the Congress leader said that it indicated the failure of the BJP government on all fronts.

Regarding Pakistani national security advisor informing India’s national security advisor about terrorists having entered into India recently, Patel asked, “What is our own intelligence doing?”

Stating that those in power in the BJP government had no contribution in country’s freedom struggle, he said that these people were now trying to take credit for everything India had achieved and get their names mentioned in country’s history.

All India Congress Seval Dal president Mahendra Joshi, addressing the marchers, said that BJP had come to power at the Centre on the basis of lies.

Stating that the country was facing a severe political crisis and threat to ideology promoted by Mahatma Gandhi, he exhorted the people to follow the tenets of truth and non-violence as taught by Mahtma Gandhi to fight the current rulers in power at the Centre.

Other prominent Congress leaders who took part in the yatra included state Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki, leader of opposition in the state assembly Shankersinh Vaghela, former state party presidents Arjun Modhwadia and Siddharth Patel as also state Seva Dal chief Mangalsinh Solanki.