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Union Health Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader JP Nadda on Tuesday led the party's 'Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao' padyatra in Bareilly, drawing a massive turnout of party workers, local leaders, and supporters.
The march comes as part of the BJP's nationwide outreach countering the opposition's allegations and targeting political rivals over issues of law and order and democratic values. Several prominent state and local BJP leaders joined the march, including Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, Union Minister and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, and several other NDA leaders. Addressing a massive gathering at the 'Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao' rally in Bareilly, Nadda invoked the 1975 Emergency, launching a blistering attack on the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, saying that even the British colonial regime did not jail as many people during the freedom struggle as his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did. He further said that the Congress party has no moral authority to give lectures on democracy when its own history is marked by absolute authoritarianism. "Those who are crying about democracy today... Rahul Baba, you try to act very smart. Just remember that your grandmother put 1,30,000 people in jail during the Emergency for 22 months without any argument, without any appeal, and without any reason. And there was no hearing for 22 months. And you talk about democracy? You are giving pleas for democracy! Friends, I want to tell you that even during the freedom struggle, the British did not put as many people in jail as Indira Gandhi put in jail during the Emergency. This is your doing regarding democracy, and today you are talking about democracy!" he asserted. Nadda further alleged that the Congress and its allies in the INDIA bloc, including the Samajwadi Party, are deliberately attempting to erode public trust in constitutional institutions, particularly the Election Commission. "Some irresponsible parties, especially this INDI Alliance, and specifically the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, these people are making malicious attempts to break the trust that people have in the Election Commission, the trust that people have in their hearts regarding the Election Commission. These people of the INDI alliance are doing this," he said. Contrasting the NDA government's national security stance with the opposition's vote-bank politics, Nadda pointed to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's policy on illegal voters. "Amit Shah says that whatever is a wrong vote, detect it, delete it, and deport them. And what do the Congress and Rahul Baba say? Settle them, normalise them, recognise them, and formalise them. Tell me, should these votes be allowed to be formalised?" the Union Minister questioned. The padyatra in Bareilly is part of a series of coordinated mass-mobilisation programmes by the BJP across various states, following a similar high-voltage march led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Hyderabad on Monday. The BJP's march comes after the INDIA bloc on November 1 organised a mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, organised against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Top Opposition leaders and supporters from across the country gathered at the venue for the INDIA blocs Chalo Delhi protest march, including Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The march began from the Minto Road-Connaught Place junction and proceeded towards Ramlila Maidan. The gathering followed a public impeachment programme against the CEC held in the national capital on October 31. (ANI)
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