The Aam Aadmi Party criticised the Union government on Friday for the police’s decision to stop Rahul Gandhi’s convoy in Manipur, calling the decision “wrong” and a sign of the “total failure” of law and order in the region.
Gandhi was stopped on his route to Churachandpur to visit relief camps on Thursday. Police described the halt as a preventative step to avert violence from erupting.
Gandhi subsequently took a helicopter to a relief camp where he engaged with residents.
According to AAP national spokesman and Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj, “it was wrong to stop Rahul Gandhi in such a manner.”
Wherever there is conflict, he warned, opposition party leaders would go.
“Where there is fury against the governing party, you cannot quiet people with the strength of lathis,” he added. “You may limit internet access and prohibit TV (news) networks from coming.
AAP main spokeswoman Priyanka Kakkar agreed with him, telling PTI that “if a common man cannot visit a place in any part of the country, it’s a total failure of law and order.”
She said that the BJP is incapable of upholding law and order, whether in Delhi or Manipur.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, who serves as the party’s Leader in the Upper House, responded when asked about the party’s plan for opposing the Center’s Ordinance on control of administrative services in Delhi in Parliament, saying he would handle floor management in consultation with other parties.
The leader of the AAP criticised the Centre’s Ordinance as being anti-democratic, anti-constitutional, and directly insulting the Supreme Court. “Our goal is to prevent the passage of this black Ordinance in Parliament.”