Rahul Gandhi vows Prayagraj student meeting despite venue permission withdrawal

India Today reported that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the government could not stop him from meeting Prayagraj students after the Kayastha Pathshala Trust withdrew permission for his August 8 Chhatron Ki Goonj event at KP Ground. The trust's acting president, Jitendra Nath Chaudhary, told PTI that an Allahabad High Court order dated August 14, 2025 barred using the ground for anything but sports and education, and that it was also waterlogged and unsafe, he said the permission had in any case been conditional on district magistrate approval. Gandhi, in a Hindi post on X, said the administration was filing FIRs against students instead of listening to them, and accused the government of meeting protest with lathi charges and pellet guns. Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai said Gandhi would still travel to Prayagraj on August 8. Separately, the Times of India reported that Gandhi told a Delhi gathering of NEET protesters that the ruling party was sending goons to students' homes and forcing them to apologise.