Rahul Gandhi’s cavalcade stoned in North Gujarat

www.mangaloretoday.com

Ahmedabad, Aug 4 2017 (DHNS): The vehicle of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was attacked with stones during his visit to Dhanera town of Banaskantha district on Friday. Unconfirmed initial reports suggest that a person from his staff had received minor injuries in stone pelting incident that saw glass in the backseat of the car shattered.

“This is not proper as no one should resort to attacking. They have all the right to peacefully protest but attacking is not right. I don’t yet know about the exact incident as I am in rural parts. However, one thing I can say that for last few days there is anger amongst locals that six of the legislators from Congress who have been elected are not being allowed to be with them and instead are holed up in Bengaluru,” Shankar Chaudhary, minister of health, Gujarat, said.

The Congress on its part has criticized the incident calling it the handiwork of a few “pervert” minds. “Innumerable people had gathered here to meet Rahul Ji. In times of distress, when a leader visits to express his sympathy with the people, the BJP workers played politics and first waved black flags and then attacked the car of Rahul Ji. This is a failure of BJP government and shows the frustration and arrogance. This is a sad instance,” Himanshu Patel, Congress leader, said.

Rahul was visiting the town as part of his three-hour visit to flood affected North Gujarat region. His car was attacked when he was on his way to the helipad for his onward journey to Patan district. Some persons were also reported to have thrown water pouches on the cavalcade of Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul was shown black flags when he was addressing the gathering of people at Lal Chowk area of Dhanera. Though Rahul said that the people showing black flags were scared or nervous, he was there to show that Congress party stood with the people. He also said that “it hardly makes any difference to me.” However, as chants of ‘Modi Modi’ began to rise, he cut short his visit and moved out of the venue.

Gandhi flew down to Gujarat for a tour of Banaskantha and Patan districts directly from Rajasthan. Over 270 persons are estimated to have died and 4.5 lakh people affected by the floods in the state, with as many as 61 persons have been killed in Banaskantha alone.