Kottayam: 'The Vaikom satyagraha has the unique distinction of being the most powerful, potent and earliest mass movement against the social evil of caste discrimination,' Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday.
Kharge was speaking here at the inauguration of the year-long centenary celebrations of the Vaikom Satyagraha, a renaissance movement against untouchability and linked to temple access.
The satyagraha, which began on March 30, 1924 and ended on November 23, 1925, was a non-violent agitation for access to the prohibited public environs of the Vaikom Temple in the Kingdom of Travancore.
"The Vaikom Satyagraha changed Kerala's social history for good," he said while speaking at the event attended by various senior Congress leaders, including KPCC president and MP K Sudhakaran, MPs Shashi Tharoor and K C Venugopal and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan.
Kharge said that the RSS had no role in the movement as it came into existence after that.
He also said that if socio-economic equality is denied to people for long, "it will put our political democracy in peril".
'Rahul's disqualification darkest day in Indian democracy'
Meanwhile, the Congress chief said the hurried disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha was the "darkest day in Indian democracy" and indicated "brutal vindictiveness" of the Narendra Modi government.
Kharge claimed the BJP government "manipulated" the entire matter beginning from the filing of the defamation case against Gandhi, for his remarks during an election campaign speech back in 2019 in Kolar, Karnataka, and ending with his disqualification on the very next day of his conviction.
"The disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha was the darkest day in Indian democracy.
"The manipulations of the BJP government in the matter have to be pointed out and if you see the timeline of the whole case it would be clearer from that," he said.
The Congress chief further said that "such actions are condemnable, destroy the democratic norms of our country and push us towards a dictatorial regime".
He also said that the haste with which Gandhi was disqualified, despite the trial court giving one month to file an appeal against his conviction and sentence, "indicates the brutal vindictiveness of the Modi government".
Kharge also attacked the Centre and the BJP by accusing them of attacking Indian democracy on a "daily basis" and "building up a false propaganda of insult to OBCs" by the Congress.
"This is all being done to distract the public attention from the real issues of BJP's corruption and loot of public money," he said.
Kharge also questioned why Modi was "hell bent on defending his friend Gautam Adani" despite grave charges of corruption, fraud and diverting funds to offshore companies against Adani Group.
"It is for this reason we demanded the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee. That is why we demanded a Parliamentary probe. But the Modi government is shying away from it. Why?" he said.
The veteran Congress leader said that the BJP government was avoiding a JPC as then the truth would come out with regard to Adani.
"The BJP government and its ministers are working overtime to save Adani and silence the opposition," Kharge said.
The Congress chief also accused the BJP government of not delivering on its promises to create more jobs, delaying filling up of vacancies and undermining and destroying independent institutions.
"A nation built on the sweat and blood of lakhs of martyrs and freedom fighters is slowly witnessing an onslaught of a dictatorial regime," he said and added "we have to protect our democracy".
(With PTI inputs.)
