Opposition holds protest march alleging 'democracy in danger'; seeks JPC probe into Adani issue

New Delhi, March 24

Several opposition parties on Friday took out a protest march from Parliament House, alleging that democracy is in “danger” and demanding a JPC probe into the Adani issue.

Prominent leaders, including KC Venugopal, Adhir Chowdhury, K Suresh, Manickam Tagore, Imran Pratapgarhi and Mohammed Javed, were stopped by the police and detained at Vijay Chowk here for violating prohibitory orders, the opposition claimed.

Addressing the media at Vijay Chowk, several leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, also raised the issue of Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case by a Surat court and alleged that the government was targeting the opposition with cases to suppress their voices.

After a protest at the Parliament House complex, a host of Opposition leaders from parties such as the CPI, CPI(M), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray), JD(U) and Aam Aadmi Party marched to Vijay Chowk, holding placards like ‘We demand JPC’ and ‘Save LIC’ and a huge banner in front of them with ‘Democracy in danger’ written on it.

“We’re fighting for JPC into the Adani issue for months. They have a majority but the BJP is scared as there’s something fishy. We’ll keep fighting for it,” Kharge said.

He also hit out at BJP chief JP Nadda over his allegation that Rahul Gandhi compared OBC communities to thieves and accused the BJP of indulging in “caste politics”.

AAP’s Sanjay Singh said Gandhi’s conviction showed that the government wanted to finish off the opposition by slapping cases on them.