Tripura Congress stages protest over threats to Rahul Gandhi

The Opposition Congress staged a protest here on Wednesday demonstrating against the leaders of BJP and their allies over reported threats made against the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress leaders and party members during the protest demonstration raised slogans and burned effigies of the leaders of BJP and its allies followed by the lodging of a formal police complaint at the West Agartala police station by Congress state president Asish Kumar Saha.

In his complaint, Saha named several political figures, including Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, Delhi BJP leader Tarvinder Singh Marwah, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) MLA Sanjay Gaikwad, and Uttar Pradesh Minister Raghuraj Singh, accusing them of inciting violence against Rahul Gandhi.

Former Minister and Congress working committee member Sudip Roy Barman, Ashish Kumar Saha and state Youth Congress President Neel Kamal Saha led the demonstration and burning of effigies in front of the state Congress headquarters.

The state Congress President in his complaint said that these leaders’ statements/imputation have been made to harm and defame Rahul Gandhi as well as the Indian National Congress Party which amounts to criminal intimidation punishable u/s 351(3) and 356 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023.

Asish Kumar Saha in his police complaint said that Bittu made a statement/imputation calling Gandhi an "extremist" and also stated that he (Gandhi) is not an Indian and the number one enemy of India and his statements appeared in various print and electronic media intending to insult the LoP and to provoke the public which, on the grounds of race, caste and community is likely to create and promote feelings of enmity, hatred, ill will between different regional groups, communities.

“Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother and late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and his late father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi are martyrs having given their lives in the interest of the integrity and sovereignty of India, for which our country will never forget their great sacrifice.

“Such allegations made by the leaders of BJP and its allies are not only false, these comments were made with mala fide intention,” Tripura state Congress chief stated.

He said that all Congress leaders, members, workers and supporters are severely hurt by the acts of all these and urged the Tripura Police to treat this complaint as an FIR against Sanjay Gaikwad, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Tarvinder Singh, and Raghuraj Singh under the BNS, 2023 and after proper investigations arrange punishment of these leaders.

On Wednesday, adding fuel to the already raging controversy over calls to harm Rahul Gandhi, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Anil Bonde has called for ‘burning’ the tongue of the LoP

Sparking a fresh row and leaving the Maha Vikas Aghadi leaders fuming, Bonde made the controversial remarks while reacting to ruling Shiv Sena’s Buldhana MLA, Sanjay Gaikwad’s comments against the LoP.

Sanjay Gaikwad announced a reward of Rs 11 lakh to anybody who could ‘snip off’ Rahul Gandhi’s tongue for his purported stand against reservation during his recent US tour.

Bonde said that instead of chopping off Rahul Gandhi’s tongue, it should be inflicted with burns (‘chatka’), as he had gone abroad and allegedly insulted the country.