Mumbai: All India Congress Committee general secretary and Maharashtra in-charge Mallikarjun Kharge called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah master liars for misguiding the public on the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Kharge said that the duo made several promises like Rs 15 lakh would be credited in each bank account, every year two crore youth would get jobs but they have failed to fulfil any of these promises.
On the occasion of the 135th Foundation Day of the Congress Party, Mallikarjun Kharge hoisted the national flag in the same Gokuldas Tejpal hall where the party was founded.
He then paid tributes at the Gandhi Smruti Stambh at August Kranti Maidan before flagging off the ‘Save Bharat Save Constitution’ March that was organised as a protest against the BJP government.
Thousands of party workers and citizens participated in the march. The march transformed into a meeting near Wilson college where the Preamble of the Constitution was read by everyone.
Addressing the crowd at the event, Kharge cornered the government from all sides and said that the Congress party was founded in Mumbai, the ‘Chale Jao’ movement was started in 1942 in Mumbai and after a lot of struggle the country got independence. Babasaheb Ambedkar gave us the Constitution of the country.
Kharge said that the Congress party has always run the country based on the Constitution which made democracy even deeper rooted in India. The Constitution offers equal rights to all the citizens, but the BJP government that is run by the RSS is trying to change the Constitution.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, NRC, NPR are all part of the same attempt. Modi and Shah are trying to trample over the Constitution and divide the country on the basis of religion and caste. This flag march was organised to tell them to ‘Chale Jao’, said Kharge.
Speaking to the public at the event, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president and revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat said that since the day the Congress party was formed it had always worked for everyone without any religion, caste, region distinction between them and by keeping everyone together it fought for the independence of the country.
The BJP is trying to strip the rights of the citizens that the Constitution bestows upon them but we will not let this attempt be successful, said Thorat.
He said that to free the country from Modi and Shah’s dictatorship, the Congress party has launched this new freedom struggle.
Mumbai Congress president Eknath Gaikwad read the Preamble of the Constitution at the event.
Former home minister Sunilkumar Shinde, former CMs Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan, Mumbai Congress president Eknath Gaikwad, former deputy speaker of the legislative council Manikrao Thakre, Public works department minister Nitin Raut, senior leader and MLA Yashomati Thakur, MLAs Vishwajit Kadam, Muzzafar Hussain were present at the march.
All India Congress Committee secretary Amit Deshmukh, Varsha Gaikwad, Ashish Dua, Sonal Patel, BM Sandip, MP Hussain Dalwai, Kumar Ketkar were present too. Former union minister Milind Deora, former MP Bhalchandra Mungekar, former minister Vijay Wadettiwar, Satej Patil, Naseem Khantoo too participated.
Current MLAs like Praniti Shinde, Aslam Shaikh, Amin Patel, Zeeshan Siddhiqui were present along with Youth Congress president Satyajeet Tambe. Spokesperson of the party Sachin Sawant and Raju Waghmare were present with a large number of party workers and office bearers.