Mumbai Congress workers staged protest against PM for insulting Maharashtra on February 9

Leaders and workers of Congress party carried out a protest demonstration near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi near Mantralaya in Mumbai on February 9. This protest was organized to demand an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “insulting the state of Maharashtra” by suggesting that it had caused the spread of COVID-19 infection in other states. Scores of supporters had participated in this agitation and gave slogans against PM Modi and BJP. Police force was deployed near the protest location to manage traffic movement and law & order situation in the area.

Similar protests were also held by Congress party outside the BJP’s offices in each districts across Maharashtra. Party leaders further informed that Congress will continue to hold demonstrations everyday till the Prime Minister apologizes to the people of Maharashtra.

A Congress leader said that “Maharashtra, which had provided all help to people (during the pandemic), has not given any right to Modi to insult the state. The people of Maharashtra will not tolerate the insult to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s state.

The controversy began after PM Modi, during a debate in Lok Sabha alleged that during the first wave, when people were following lockdowns and COVID-19 norms, the Congress was standing at railway stations in Mumbai and scaring innocent labourers into fleeing to their native states. Protest demonstrations were held across the state on February 9 and at different locations throughout the month of February.