Rahul Gandhi leads midnight candlelight march over Unnao, Kathua minor rape cases

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led a midnight candlenight march to the India Gate here to protest the Kathua and Unnao minor rape cases with the party leaders alleging that the daughters of the country were not safe in the Modi regime.

Gandhi was joined by his sister Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra, as also scores of Congress leaders, party workers and students, who shouted slogans against the Modi government and the state governments in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir and demanded urgent action against the perpetrators of two heinous gangrapes -- one in Unnao (UP) and the other in Kathua (J&K).

Several Congress leaders, however, asked the people in the march to keep it a "silent" protest.

Some people were seen having brought their children as well.

The Congress leaders present at the protest march to the India Gate, which in the past has seen a huge protest in the Nirbhaya rape case, included Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Salman Khurshid, Ashok Gehlot, Ajay Maken, Sushmita Dev, Haroon Yusuf, Randeep Surjewala and Ambika Soni.

Azad said the Modi government was sleeping and those facing the biggest threat were the daughters of the country during the current regime.

Several Congress leaders also poked fun at the Modi government's Beti Bachao slogan, saying the daughters were not safe in the country.

Announcing the march, Gandhi had tweeted in the evening, "Like millions of Indians my heart hurts tonight. India simply cannot continue to treat its women the way it does."