There seems to be no end to controversy over Congress party’s one-day fast, led by party president Rahul Gandhi, at Rajghat on Monday. Even before dust could settle over removal of Jagdish Tytler from the fast venue, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader has now claimed that Congress leaders had a meal in a restaurant before sitting on fast at Rajghat.
Taking to microblogging site Twitter, former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana’s son and BJP leader Harish Khurana shared a picture of Congress leaders, including Ajay Maken, Haroon Yusuf and Arvinder Singh Lovely, eating at a restaurant in New Delhi.He claimed in his tweet that while the Congress party has called others for holding fast at Rajghat, leaders of the party are enjoying Chhole Bhature sitting in a restaurant.
Reacting to the attack by the ruling party, Congress leader Lovely said that the photograph was clicked before 8 am. “This is symbolic fast from 10.30 am to 4.30pm, it is not indefinite hunger strike,” he said.
Lovely further attacked the BJP saying, “This is what is wrong with these (BJP) people. Instead of properly running the country, they concentrate on what we eat.”
This came shortly after a controversy erupted as Congress leader Jagdish Tytler, who has been named in connection with 1984 anti-Sikh riots, was asked to leave the stage where Rahul Gandhi would be holding the fast.
The party, however, ruled out any controversy, saying the leaders were asked to leave the stage as they did not meet the “criteria”. Congress Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken told reporters that only party office bearers and former ministers were supposed to join the Congress president on the stage for the fast, adding that “some leaders who did not meet the criteria were asked to leave”.
Former president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, Arvinder Singh Lovely, also gave the same reasoning while speaking to Zee News. He said, “Only those who did not meet the criteria were asked to leave the stage. There is no other reason behind it.”
While Rahul Gandhi is himself participating in the fast at Rajghat to ‘protect communal harmony’, he has directed all district headquarters of the party to ensure it becomes a country-wide event.
