Cautioning that the return of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in the 2019 general election will put the country in peril, senior journalist Arun Shourie on Friday advised the Opposition to stop stressing on prestige issues and instead forget the past to come together to fight.
“When the country is in danger, Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejariwal should not make an issue of who will make the first phone call,” Mr. Shourie said, addressing the Mumbai debut of Rashtra Manch, a non-political forum with a call to ‘save democracy and constitution.’
BJP MP Shatrughna Sinha, former finance minister Yashwant Sinha, former raliway minister Dinesh Triwedi, AAP MP Sanjay Singh, former high court judge Abhay Thipsay among others were the other speakers at the event. They voiced their concern over instances of violence, the alleged involvement of BJP in manipulating the media, judiciary and bureaucracy, and the autocractic functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Shourie said that 2019 is going to be the last chance to reverse the course. “ Opposition parties should avoid breaking alliance over 3 or 4 seats. Don’t make your differences public. Don’t talk about each other, but talk to each other.”
Commenting on the role of media, Mr. Shourie said, “Many say that media persons fear exposing wrongdoing by the government and business groups. But I think it’s greed that is coming in the way, not fear.”
Mr. Shatrughna Sinha said, "Before being a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, I am a representative of the Bharatiya Janta. A party is larger than an individual, but our nation is larger than any party. I won’t leave the BJP but if because of my work and actions they want me to leave ... lets see."
Mr. Yashwant Sinha pointed out that the country's home minister was not aware about situations like the alliance in J&K, or the framework of the Naga accord and the same could be said about the finance ministry and demonetisation.
Meanwhile, Mr. Thipsay said that under BJP rule, even judges are scared to deliver judgement. “Our country has taken a turn for the worse in the past four years. Independence of judiciary is a fundamental feature of the Constitution but it is being subverted like never before,” he added.