Call for fair elections
TENS of thousands of people gathered in India’s capital on Sunday along with dozens of opposition chiefs calling for a free and fair election – and to protest the arrests of several top political leaders, including the chief minister of Delhi.
For the first time since a broad opposition alliance was formed last year, supporters showed up in force to contest alleged political interference by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party. The gathering at one of biggest public grounds in Delhi came less than three weeks before elections in which Modi’s BJP is favoured to win again.
“We are here to save the constitution of this country,” said Mehbooba Mufti, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
The opposition has criticised the ruling party for months as their leaders faced arrests and investigations by federal agencies – moves that have drawn international scrutiny.
Two chief ministers have been arrested in the past two months without official charges being filed in court. Both are still in prison. Modi’s BJP has denied all allegations of interference and the use of government agencies to further a political agenda.
The united front shown by the opposition on Sunday appeared aimed at trying to convince a broader swath of voters that the BJP is undercutting democracy in the world’s most populous nation.
The “Save Democracy” rally featured top officials from almost every opposition party from across the country. The Congress party, which has had its bank accounts targeted by the Income Tax Department, brought all its senior leaders, the wives of the arrested chief ministers and former chief ministers from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
“The Indian constitution that gave a future to the poor, that gave the right to dream, that constitution is being snatched from the hands of the country’s poor,” said Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of the Congress party.
Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of Aam Aadmi Party or Common Man’s Party, is the latest party chief to be arrested, getting detained last month on alleged bribery charges linked to a nowdefunct liquor policy. He’s denied the allegations. Yesterday, a Delhi court sided with the government lawyer to keep Kejriwal in prison until at least April 15.