Dissenters fully participate in Congress protest march on farm laws as they continue to press their issues
Dec 24, 2020
By By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], December 24 : Even as they continue to press for issues raised by them, the leaders who wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in August for sweeping reforms in the party, fully participated in the programme today over demand for the repeal of three farm laws with the Congress putting up a show of unity.
The letter writers including Anand Sharma, Manish Tiwari and Shashi Tharoor were among those present in the Congress office today morning for the party's programme to submit two crore signatures to President Ram Nath Kovind for the repeal of the farm laws, against which farmers are protesting on the Delhi borders since last month.
Sharma was among the several party leaders briefly detained by police as they were on their way to Rashtrapati Bhavan to submit the signatures.
The party memorandum was submitted to the President Kovind by Rahul Gandhi who was accompanied by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and leader of the party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.
Azad was among the 23 leaders who had written the letter.
Several party leaders including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Kodikunnil Suresh, Jairam Ramesh, Kumari Selja, Randeep Singh Surjewala and Pawan Kumar Bansal were among those detained and released by police.
In their letter, the dissenters had sought "full-time and active" leadership and also elections at various levels including to the Congress Working Committee.
An "ice-breaking" meeting was held Sonia Gandhi's residence on Saturday last which was also attended by some of the 23 leaders.
Speaking to the media after a five-hour-long meeting, former union minister Pawan Bansal had stated that the leaders conveyed that the party needs the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.
"Everyone said that the party needs Rahul Gandhi's leadership and we should not care for those who want to divert attention from the agenda. A total of 19 leaders including Sonia Gandhi were present in the meeting. Sonia Gandhi told Congress like a family and said that we will work together as a family," Bansal had said.
