Rumours were making rounds that Rahul Gandhi may again have gone abroad, perhaps to recuperate from the ‘Bharat Bachao Rally’ he addressed on Saturday because of his conspicuous absence from the two-hour ‘symbolic’ protest at New Delhi’s India Gate organised by his sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
.@PriyankaGandhi is sitting in silent protest at India Gate. @RahulGandhi is reportedly out of the country and asked PGV to take the lead. Both given very powerful message on Twitter.#IndiaAgainstCAB #HindusAgainstCAB
— Sanjukta Basu (@sanjukta) December 16, 2019
Priyanka, however, was joined by other Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler who was accused of leading mobs during the 1984 Anti-Sikh riots.
Delhi: Jagdish Tytler arrives for Congress’ symbolic protest near India Gate over police action during students’ protests in Jamia Millia Islamia (Delhi) & Aligarh Muslim University. pic.twitter.com/Micwuab2Kj
— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2019
Earlier it was reported by Congress-friendly journalist Pallavi Ghosh that all Congress leaders will join Priyanka in her protests, but her sibling senior MP Rahul Gandhi and mother, Congress President Sonia Gandhi were both missing from the protests.
@priyankagandhi and all cong leaders will sit on dharna at india gate for 2 hours
— pallavi ghosh (@_pallavighosh) December 16, 2019
Rahul Gandhi’s absence made people wonder if he has gone abroad.
” I stand in solidarity with all those protesting peacefully against the CAB & NRC ” says @RahulGandhi on #Twitter.
Hope he is not abroad celebrating the success of #BharatBachaoRally#JamiaProtest #ProtestAgainstCAB pic.twitter.com/GGCdqpO1il
— Pankaj Shankar पंकज शंकर (@pankaj_shankar) December 16, 2019
If it is true that Rahul Gandhi is indeed abroad, it won’t be the first time when he isn’t around to be part of the democracy that India is.
Read: Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s fast… err.. farce on communal harmony
In November, Congress had planned 35 press conferences between November 1 and November 8 against the economic policies and decisions of PM Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre. The protest was incidentally planned by Rahul Gandhi. However, Rahul Gandhi decided to skip the protest event that he himself planned and instead visited mysterious ‘meditation’ camps. These ‘protests’ were eventually postponed to December and now it seems they will not take place.
