Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been allowed to travel to Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras and meet the family of the 20-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly gang raped and murdered last month – and whose body was then cremated in a secretive ceremony at 2.30 am – in a savage crime that has shocked the nation.
This was the Congress leaders’ second attempt – the first, on Thursday, ended in a tussle with cops who refused to let Mr Gandhi pass, citing orders banning large gatherings amid coronavirus concerns, and shoved him to the ground in the chaos that followed. Another opposition leader – Trinamool Congress’s Derek O’Brien – was also manhandled as he too tried to speak to the family.
A similarly dramatic face-off seemed in store today as Mr Gandhi set off from Delhi at around 2.30 pm in a silver Toyota Innova that Mrs Gandhi Vadra was driving. Their convoy consisted of around 30 Congress MPs, including Shashi Tharoor. Hathras is around 200 km from Delhi.
“Nothing in the world can stop me from going to Hathras to meet this unhappy family to share their pain,” he said before leaving, while she told news agency ANI: “If not this time, then we will try again”.
A massive force of around 200 cops – some in riot gear and wielding lathis – was deployed at the toll plaza along the Delhi-Noida Direct (DND) Flyover with definite instructions – do not allow Congress leaders to cross the border.
