Delhi riots: Congress leaders meet President, demand HMs resignation

AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra along with party workers sits on a street after being stopped by police officials during a peace march from AICC Headquarters to 30 January Marg against the communal violence in North-East Delhi area. Picture/

New Delhi: A Congress delegation, including party chief Sonia Gandhi, on Thursday urged President Ram Nath Kovind to call for Home Minister Amit Shah-s resignation over his alleged "abdication of duty" during the communal violence in Delhi and remind the Centre of its "raj dharma".

The delegation, including former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, P Chidambaram, K C Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Anand Sharma and Randeep Surjewala, also submitted a memorandum to the president over the wave of violence in Delhi.

Reading out parts of the memorandum before the media outside the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sonia Gandhi said that instead of taking remedies to diffuse the situation in Delhi, the Centre and the newly-elected Delhi government have remained "mute spectators" to the violence.
The violence has taken the lives of 34 people and businesses have fallen prey to looting, Gandhi said.

The party also asked the president to call for the resignation of Home Minister Amit Shah over alleged "abdication of duty" during the violence. Manmohan Singh, in his remarks to the media, said the Congress leaders called upon the President to convey to him that what has happened in the last four days in the national capital is a matter of deep concern and national shame.

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