Accusing government of using "barbaric repression and violence" to suppress the voice of protestors demonstrating against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday said it was a "black day for democracy".
"National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are against the fundamental spirit of the Indian Constitution and that assault on Baba Saheb Ambedkar's Constitution will not be allowed at any cost," Gandhi said in a statement.
"People are fighting on the streets to save the Constitution, but the government is bent upon barbaric repression and violence to suppress the voice of protestors," she added.
She alleged that there had been illegal arrests of students.
"Illegal arrests of students, intellectuals, social workers, lawyers and journalists in all parts of the country, including Uttar Pradesh, is disgraceful, as no one knows where the police are taking the people after arresting them," she said.
The Congress general secretary expressed concern over the reports of police keeping in "illegal detention" several socio-political activists for two days in Lucknow. "Their relatives were not informed about the arrests," she said.
The Congress leader claimed that shocking reports were surfacing through media that those who have been arrested are being beaten up and tortured in police custody.
She alleged that Uttar Pradesh government has shut down communication and internet services.
"In Firozabad, Amroha, Moradabad, Bareilly, Rampur, Kanpur and Gorakhpur, the police lathi-charged the peaceful demonstrators. Police are inciting people to adopt violent means during the protests and marches everywhere. There have been reports of 15 people killed in police violence in Uttar Pradesh," Gandhi said.
She alleged that BJP government will make people stand in queues for NRC as it did at the time of demonetisation.
"As the BJP government had made the poor people stand in queues during demonetisation, it will now make the people stand in queues in the name of NRC and the CAA. Soon a cut-off date will be fixed and every Indian will have to prove his/her Indian identity by producing some valid document. In this way, most of the poor and deprived people will be persecuted," she said.
Appealing people to maintain peace and harmony in the country, she said, "We got Independence following a path of truth and non-violence. Today it is necessary that Babasaheb Ambedkar's Constitution should be protected through truth and non-violence as envisioned by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi."
( With inputs from ANI )