Democracy is in danger, warns Opposition
Union Minister Anurag Thakur says rally showed the INDIA bloc did not have a leader or a policy; Delhi BJP unit president Virendra Sachdeva says AAP has failed to its enthuse its own supporters
INDIA bloc holds rally in solidarity with Delhi CM Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Soren Leaders urge poll body to ensure level playing field, flag ‘coercive action’ by Central agencies Participants at the rally, including Trinamool Congress, recommit themselves to the alliance
Under the banner of “Loktantra Bachao” or “Save Democracy”, leaders of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) stood united at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday in solidarity with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who were arrested in separate cases by the Enforcement Directorate. The bloc also laid down their 2024 Lok Sabha election pitch, calling it a “fight to save the Constitution”.
In speech after speech, the Opposition leaders lamented the lack of a level playing field for them in the election, citing “coercive action” by Central agencies against them and income tax notices financially crippling them.
This was in effect the first public meeting of the 10monthold INDIA bloc, which has been hit by desertions and conflicts over seatsharing arrangements.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi asserted that without EVM manipulation and other intimidatory tactics, the BJP and its allies cannot cross 180 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
“When pressure is put on umpires and captains, players are bought off and the match is won in cricket, it is called matchfixing. We have the Lok Sabha election before us. Who selected the umpires? Before the match started, two players were arrested... Narendra Modi is trying to do matchfixing in the election,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Mr. Gandhi sought to remind the crowd of remarks from a BJP MP, who he did not name, that the BJP will change the Constitution when it gets over 400 seats. Sounding an alarm, Mr. Gandhi said, “If the Constitution is finished, this country will be finished” and “the country will be torn apart into different States”.
Wives of both incarcerated leaders — Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Soren — spoke at the event. Sunita Kejriwal read out a message from the jailed Chief Minister, in which he promised five guarantees — 24x7 power supply, free electricity for the poor, government schools and mohalla clinics in every village, a multispecialty government hospital in every district, and minimum support price for all crops in adherence to the Swaminathan report.
‘Time to choose’
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge likened the BJP and RSS to “poison”. “You have to decide if you want democracy or dictatorship... Those who support dictatorship need to be kicked out of the country. The BJP and RSS are like poison. You will die even if you taste poison,” Mr. Kharge said. The Congress president also spoke to his allies, asking them to overcome their differences. The rally also served as an opportunity for many INDIA bloc participants to recommit themselves to the antiBJP alliance. Trinamool Congress, which had refused to concede any seat to Congress in West Bengal, asserted that it “was, is, and will be part of the INDIA bloc”.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav regaled the crowd with a parody of “Tum Toh Dhokhebaaz Ho”, a song from actor Govinda’s blockbuster Hindi film Saajan Chale Sasural. The actor had recently joined the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), which is part of the BJPled NDA. The song mocked the Modi government’s alleged failed promises. He said that the BJP’s campaign tagline “Abki baar, 400
paar” (This time, over 400 seats) indicates that they have already fixed the EVMs.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav commented that Uttar Pradesh knows how to warmly welcome people and bid them farewell. Taking a dig at the BJP, he asked why the ruling party which is confident of winning 400 seats is scared of Mr. Kejriwal and other Opposition leaders.
But amidst the uniformity in the message, there were also underlying contradictions. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury in his speech underlining the importance of the venue said, “It was here, 47 years back, that a historic meeting was held where Jai Prakash Narayan raised the slogan ‘Freedom or servitude’ and in the election that year, ‘freedom’ won. Today again we are demanding freedom for our secular democratic nation from certain forces,” he said. The irony that the venue in 2011 hosted the Anna Hazare movement — that led to the rise of AAP and the fall of the Congress governments in the Centre and Delhi — was also not lost on the assembled crowd. At the conclusion of the rally, on behalf of the INDIA bloc, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra read out the fivepart demands. The Opposition parties demanded that the Election Commission ensure a level playing field for them and stop “coercive action” against them by Central agencies. They also demanded the immediate release of Mr. Soren and Mr. Kejriwal. The parties also urged the Supreme Court to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the allegations of quid pro quo, extortion and money laundering by the BJP using the electoral bonds.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday criticised the INDIA bloc’s mega rally in Delhi, with Union Minister Anurag Thakur saying that “thieves and their cousins together pleaded at the Ramlila Maidan”.
“During the Anna [Hazare] movement at Ramlila Maidan, [Delhi Chief Minister] Arvind Kejriwal used to say that he was fighting a war against corruption and would not enter politics. But he came into politics and today has landed in a quagmire of corruption. Earlier, he used to say that there is something about this [Chief Minister’s] chair that makes its occupants indulge in corruption. Today, he has proved his own point,” Mr. Thakur added.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva hit out at the rally, claiming that the Opposition alliance failed to make a mark in its first show of strength in the national capital, with the residents of Delhi rejecting calls of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress to attend the rally.
“Media reports have shown that it was a disjointed rally, witnessing only a motley crowd of a few thousand, most of them brought from Punjab and Haryana,” he added.
Leaders of both the Delhi Congress and the AAP who were making tall claims about the rally for the past one week at media briefings could not enthuse even their own party workers, leave alone the people of Delhi, he said, adding that the lack of unity between the AAP and the Congress was apparent as a video showed the Congress workers removing a picture of Mr. Kejriwal put up near the podium by the AAP leaders.
Flawed intentions
Taking a dig at Sunita Kejriwal, wife of the Chief Minister, who announced six guarantees by the AAP supremo currently under ED custody, Mr. Thakur said: “What kind of alliance is this where there is no discussion, no mutual understanding? They have neither a leader nor a policy, and their intentions are flawed. Today again they have declared guarantees for discussion. Do other leaders of the alliance agree with these guarantees?”
Mr. Sachdeva said that the “failure of Sunday’s rally” had marked the “beginning of the end” of the AAP in Delhi.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi cited corruption cases against a host of leaders, including those from the Congress, the DMK and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, to assert that all these charges dated back to the pre2014 period.