Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi at a meeting in New Delhi on August 13, 2024.
Credit: X/@kharge
New Delhi: Intensifying its protest over the latest Hindenburg report, Congress on Tuesday announced a nationwide protest on August 22 demanding a Joint Parliamentary Probe (JPC) into the allegations against Adani Group and removal of SEBI chairperson Madhabi Puri Buch claiming that a person who has "no credibility" should not continue in the post.
The party also kept its cards close to the chest on the Supreme Court verdict on sub-classification of Scheduled Castes saying its view would be finalised after a committee appointed by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge consulted all party leaders and stakeholders.
It also decided to reiterate its demand for a nationwide Caste Census without delay through another nationwide campaign from district to national level to protect the Constitution and existing reservation system to ensure economic, social and political justice.
The contours of the Congress campaigns were decided at a meeting of General Secretaries, in-charges and state presidents chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi here.
The meeting discussed in detail about the “biggest scam” in the country following the claims by US short-seller Hindenburg, which accused Buch and her husband of conflict of interest through investing in offshore funds allegedly linked to Adani Group. SEBI and Buchs had denied the claims.
At the meeting, Kharge said the “shocking revelations of nexus between SEBI and Adani” needs a thorough investigation and the Modi government must immediately seek the resignation of the SEBI chairperson and constitute a JPC.
Announcing the August 22 protest at a press conference, Congress General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal said, “the Prime Minister is fully involved and the market regulator is now found to have been severely compromised....The SEBI chairperson should be removed. A person who has no credibility cannot continue as SEBI chairperson.”
This also formed part of a resolution passed by the meeting which saw 38 of the 56 senior leaders, who were present, airing their views on a variety of issues, including the sub-classification of SCs. While the party has unequivocally opposed introducing creamy layer as suggested by the Supreme Court, the party is divided on the issue of sub-classification of SCs.
To a question on Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy welcoming the judgement, Venugopal said whatever decision taken by the party would be applicable to everybody, including Reddy. Earlier, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also had described the verdict as historic.
He also said the government had enough opportunities to bring a Bill in the recently concluded Parliament to rule out ‘creamy layer’ but it did not.
The leaders also discussed the poll preparations for Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The leadership has left it to the state units to decide on whether to have alliances in the states ahead of the elections.
At the meeting, Kharge also wanted the party to focus on the pressing issues of “unbridled unemployment, uncontrolled inflation and depletion of household savings”, as the poor and middle class have been “betrayed”.
He also highlighted attacks on the Constitution, demand of Caste census and legal guarantee, scrapping of Agnipath Scheme, train derailments, climate related disasters and collapsing infrastructure. “We would design a national campaign around these issues and go to the people,” he said.
The party also called upon the Government to take all possible steps to ensure that targeted attacks on religious minorities and their places of worship in Bangladesh are stopped and to ensure that they are enabled to lead a life of security, dignity and harmony.
The meeting expressed its “deepest distress” at the devastating landslide tragedy in Wayanad and re-emphasised the demand made by Rahul for declaring this as a national disaster.