Top INDIA bloc leaders gathered at the Loktantra Bachao (save democracy) rally at Ramlila Maidan on Sunday urged people to vote out the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls to “save democracy and the Constitution”.
The leaders who were on the stage at the Loktantra Bachao (save democracy) rally included Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, former presidents Sonia and Rahul Gandhi; NCP’s Sharad Yadav, NC leader Farooq Abdullah, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray; Left leaders Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Dipankar Bhattacharya; Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav; RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and TMC’s Derek O’Brien.
Chief Minister Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal and JMM leader Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren also addressed the gathering, attacking the Central government over the arrest of their husbands in corruption cases.
Addressing the gathering, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, also claimed the country was moving towards becoming an “autocracy” as he appealed to people of the country to throw the BJP out of power. He hit out at the BJP and said, “We are not here for an election campaign, we are here to save democracy... You level allegations and send people to jail. What kind of government is this?”
“When two of our sisters are fighting, how can the brother stay behind? So we are here for our sisters, Kalpana ji and Sunita ji. Not just us, the whole country is with you,” Thackeray said, referring to former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal.Both Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren have been arrested by federal agencies in different cases of corruption.
“Some time ago, we had this doubt that our nation is moving towards an autocracy... It’s not a doubt anymore, it is a reality... If the BJP government thinks that people will get scared by arresting Hemant ji and Arvind ji, they don’t know Indians. We are not people who get scared, we fight,” Thackeray said. The former Maharashtra chief minister accused the BJP of misusing the ED, CBI and Income Tax Department, and said they should declare that the three agencies are their allies.
Accusing the ruling BJP of using central agencies to attack opposition leaders, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav urged people to vote against the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls if they wanted to save democracy in the country.
Akhilesh questioned why the BJP is using agencies against the opposition if it is confident of crossing the 400-seat mark in the upcoming polls. “If you are so confident of crossing 400 (Lok Sabha seats in polls), why are you scared of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders? You sent Arvind Kejriwal to jail... Hemant Soren was sent to jail...” he said. “The nation knows they have used ED, CBI to extort donations. To suppress this, false cases are being imposed on opposition leaders,” he said.
“Defeat them, send them back. The country will be saved only by your vote. Your vote will save democracy, your vote will save the Constitution, it will save reservation, it will enable work that needs to be done to save the PDA (‘pichde’, Dalit, ‘alpsankhyak’ or backward classes, Dalits, minorities),” he said.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren, who took the post after Hemant Soren’s resignation ahead of his arrest, said BJP’s autocracy and its ideology will not be allowed to flourish. He said Hemant Soren was arrested even as there was no evidence against him. “He worked for the Dalits, Adivasis, and backward classes. That made the BJP restless,” the Jharkhand CM said.
Speaking at the rally, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav has claimed that his guarantee is like Chinese goods and is only meant for polls, as he urged people not to fall for the BJP’s “propaganda” in the Lok Sabha polls. Yadav also sang lines from a Govinda-starrer movie with a play on the lyrics “tum toh dhokebaaz ho, vaada karke bhool jaate ho”, to allege that Prime Minister Modi did not fulfil his promises made in the last election. “Modi ji says his guarantee is a strong one, we say that his guarantee is like Chinese goods, use it two-three times and it goes bad. So his guarantees are only meant for elections. They (BJP) only indulge in propaganda and making threats,” the RJD leader charge Yadav also took a jibe at Modi over this morning’s ceremony of conferring Bharat Ratna to BJP veteran L K Advani.”When President was conferring Bharat Ratna to Advani ji, Modi ji was sitting next to Advani ji but did not even stand in honour of the President,” he said.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “Today a new energy has been created in Indian politics, which will make Indian democracy win and autocracy lose...” Yechury said. He stressed that it was important to save democracy, secularism and the Indian Constitution. “We will defeat those powers which are destroying the nation,” he said. Communist Party of India general secretary D Raja said the country is facing a “calamity”.
