Cong to take out marches across country on its foundation day

Amid raging anti-CAA protests, the Congress will take out marches across the country on its 134th foundation day on Saturday to take its "Save Constitution-Save India" message to the people.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will unfurl the party's flag at the AICC headquarters here on Saturday morning to mark the occasion, while former party chief Rahul Gandhi will address a rally in Assam's Guwahati, where he will take on the Narendra Modi government over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), among other issues.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will address party workers at Lucknow at a meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Pradesh Congress Committee (UPPCC).

"In addition to the customary flag hoisting in state capitals, presidents of Pradesh Congress Committees will undertake flag marches carrying the message of 'Save Constitution-Save India'," Congress general secretary, organization, K C Venugopal, said in a statement.

They will also read the preamble of the Constitution in their respective languages at public meetings organised for this purpose, he said.

In the last few days there has been widespread protests in colleges, universities and prominent institutions across the country against the government's decision to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the CAA, Venugopal said.

"Faced by this massive backlash, the PM (Narendra Modi) and Home Minister (Amit Shah) have indulged in characteristic double speak, and are now attempting to covertly undertake the exercise through NPR (the National Population Register)," he said in the statement.

"The protestors were attacked by police indiscriminately. There were cases of deaths due to police firing at many places. The government has put itself in a bind on these issues with the PM, HM and RM (Raksha Mantri) making contradictory statements on different occasions.

"The CAA proposes to flout the guarantees of Article 14, in contravention of the Constitution," Venugopal said.

Amidst massive public outrage, the government decided to take a step further and announced 'updation of NPR' exercise on December 24, he said.

This has again raised heckles and suspicion because of the RSS-BJP's long hidden agenda to implement the NRC following completion of the NPR exercise, the Congress leader said.

The Congress will rise to every occasion when there is a challenge to the Constitution and any effort to derail the country from its path of progress amidst historical unemployment and pall of economic gloom, Venugopal said.