New Delhi: The Congress party staged countrywide protests against inflation, unemployment and several other issues on August 5.
The national capital witnessed unruly scenes of scuffle between Congress workers and Delhi Police. Several top leaders of the party, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, were detained by the Delhi Police.
The detained Congress leaders and workers were released later in the day. Before the protests, Rahul Gandhi addressed a press conference where he launched a scathing attack on the government, alleging that “India is witnessing the death of democracy”.
Party leaders and workers organised similar protests in different state capitals. While Congress stressed that the party staged protests to raise issues of people’s concern, the ruling BJP alleged that the main opposition party wants to create pressure on the government through such agitations against the Enforcement Directorate’s investigation into the alleged involvement of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in money laundering linked to the National Herald case.
CVoter-IndiaTracker conducted a nationwide survey on behalf of IANS to know people’s opinion about the intention of Congress’ protests.
The survey found that people were divided in their views about the massive protests held by the main opposition party.
While 52 per cent of the respondents opined that the real target of the protests was the ED, which has questioned the Gandhis for several rounds, 48 per cent of those who participated in the survey disagreed and stressed that agitation was organised against skyrocketing prices of daily use commodities and joblessness.
Interestingly, while the majority of opposition voters, 60 per cent, said that the hidden agenda of the protest was to target the probe agency, the majority of NDA voters, 60 per cent, did not share the sentiment and stated that the agitation was held to raise issues of inflation and unemployment.
During the survey, views of both the urban and rural voters were divided on the issue.
As per the survey data, while 53 per cent urban voters said that the real agenda of the protest was to target the investigating agency, 47 per cent disagreed.
Similarly, while 50 per cent rural voters opined Congress wanted to demoralise the ED through the protests, another 50 per cent of rural respondents held a different view and said the protests aimed to corner the government on the issue of inflation and unemployment.
–IANS