Assam: Congress workers stage sit-in protest against price rise, GST

The Congress on Friday staged a nationwide protest against price and GST with the Assam branch of Congress party taking a huge protest rally against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) leaders and workers carrying banners and placards raised slogans and staged demonstrations across the state. In Guwahati, the party leaders along with the workers marched towards Raj Bhawan but were stopped by the security personnel from advancing further.

Earlier, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) via a communiqué mentioned that a delegation of Congress party leaders and workers will be meeting the Governor of Assam at 3.30 pm today after the successful siege programme at Raj Bhawan against price rise, and hand over a memorandum to the Governor for his intervention into the matter and come about with a decisive resolution on unemployment problem, deprivation of Assam in flood relief allocation, GST on essential commodities etc.

Meanwhile, the national capital too saw a massive demonstration led by Gandhi siblings, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, who were later detained by police along with senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. Security has been tightened in several places with Section 144 clamped down across New Delhi barring the Janta Manta area.

Earlier this morning, Rahul Gandhi launched a stinging criticism of the government, claiming that India was no longer a democracy but rather a dictatorship. In a press conference, he declared, "India is witnessing the collapse of democracy. Watch as what India has constructed brick by brick since it began nearly a century ago is demolished. Anyone who opposes the idea of the coming of a dictatorship is brutally attacked, imprisoned, incarcerated, and beaten up.”