Panaji, Oct 2 (IANS): If Mahatma Gandhi were alive today, he would have launched an agitation against the NDA government at the Centre that was much bigger than the one he led against the British, former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro said on Friday.

Speaking at a ceremony at the state Congress headquarters on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, Faleiro also slammed the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government for what he called "trying to destroy evidence" in the gang-rape of a Dalit woman in Hathras, by hurriedly cremating the body in the dead of the night, without her parents' permission.

"Today, after 151 years, we have to do an introspection and find out whether these powerful weapons of 'ahimsa' and 'satyagraha' are relevant or not. The British have gone but today after 151 years of his birth, according to me, if Mahatma Gandhi were alive, he would have led a much bigger agitation against the present government that is working against the common man," the Congress MLA said.

"Just a few days back, we have seen in UP, how a young Dalit woman was raped and murdered. How the police, the Magistrate and the state government tried to hide the atrocities against this vulnerable section of society and how they tried to destroy the evidence, by cremating the victim without permission of her parents in the middle of the night," the former Congress Working Committee member alleged.

He also slammed the UP administration for "manhandling" Rahul Gandhi and detaining him on Thursday when the former Congress President was en route the village of the victim in Hathras.

The Congress in Goa also staged a silent protest to condemn the "manhandling and detention of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and atrocities against the Hathras rape victim".