India
“What’s he doing outside?” Acting LS Speaker Questions Rahul Gandhi’s Sambhal Visit Attempt; opposition walks away | India News – Times of India
While Rahul Gandhi, along with Priyanka Gandhi and other party leaders were stopped at the Delhi-UP border, Congress’ Mohammad Jawed raised the issue in Lok Sabha. Jagdambika Pal of the BJP, who was serving as Speaker in place of Om Birla at that time, sought his sentence midway and asked, “The House of Representatives is in session, what is the Leader of the Opposition doing outside? He should have been present in the hearing. House,” Pal said.
This comes as Rahul’s convoy was stopped at Ghazipur border to go to Sambhal. Rahul said he was ready to go alone, adding that this is against the rights of the LoP and against the Constitution.
“We are trying to go to Sambhal, police are refusing, they are not allowing us. As LoP it is my right to go, but they are holding me back. I’m willing to go alone, I’m willing to go with the police, but they didn’t accept that either. They say if we come back in a few days, they will let us go,” Rahul Gandhi said.
“This is against the rights of the LoP and against the constitution. We just want to go to Sambhal and see what happened there, we want to meet the people. My constitutional right is not being given to me. This is the new India, This is the India that puts an end to the Constitution. This is the India that puts an end to Ambedkar’s constitution. We will continue to fight,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Sambhal District Magistrate Rajendra Pensia wrote a letter to the police commissioners of Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad and the police commissioners of Amroha and Bulandshahr districts, urging them to stop Rahul Gandhi at the borders of their districts.
However, a Congress party delegation slipped into Sambhal and met some families of those who died in the November 24 violence and were about to leave the district.
The delegation included UP Congress Committee (UPCC) general secretary Sachin Chaudhary and his vice-president Rizwan Qureshi, along with All India Congress Committee national secretary Pradeep Narwal and a few members of Gandhi’s team.
They also facilitated a telephone conversation between Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the relatives of the victims. A delegation from Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (JUH) also visited the violence-hit town and later provided “financial assistance, checks of Rs 5 lakh each, to the families of the deceased” at a local madrassa.
At least five people were killed and several others, including more than 20 police personnel, injured at the Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh after violent clashes broke out following a court-ordered probe into the Mughal-era Jama Masjid.
The probe was ordered following a petition filed by senior advocate Vishnu Shanker Jain, alleging that the mosque was originally a temple.
