Setting the tone for the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, the Opposition Congress marched to Pranab Mukherjee’s Raisina Hill residence on Tuesday and urged the President to use the political and moral authority of his office to impress upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi that growing incidents of intolerance were not acceptable to the country.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh and party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi led the march, which was attended by party leaders and MPs. “A sinister campaign has been unleashed to create social and communal tension and conflict with the objective of polarising our society and disturbing social harmony. The pluralistic character of our society and its rich diversity is under assault,” the leaders said in a memorandum.

The Congress, along with other Opposition parties, had marched to the President’s House during the Budget Session of Parliament against the land acquisition ordinance. “Whatever incidents are happening in the country today are part of a well thought-out strategy being adopted deliberately to divide our society,” Sonia Gandhi told reporters after meeting the President. “But the Prime Minister is silent. It clearly indicates that he endorses all these incidents,” she said adding that the Congress will fight such forces with all its strength.

Rahul Gandhi said Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley believe that everything is fine in the country. “This is the heart of the problem. These people believe in intolerance. Ideologically they are not tolerant. It is not a matter of just Congress party alone. It is a problem of every single Indian ...and the PM does not believe in that,” he said and urged the Prime Minister to sack Union Minister VK Singh for his comments on the murder of two Dalit children in Haryana.

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