Opp parties give call to defeat BJP

Giving an unequivocal call to defeat their common political rival — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies — in parliamentary elections due next year, leader of nearly dozen political parties from Opposition have joined hands. They shared a common dais on Thursday at New Delhi’s Talkatora stadium. The call for the Opposition unity to counter BJP and to oust it from the power in 2019, was apparently buoyed by the presence of national president of Congress party Rahul Gandhi.

“Sanjhi Virasat Bachao Sammelan” organized by former Union Minister Sharad Yadav at the Talkatora Stadium  on Thursday, leaders from the Opposition unleashed a scathing attack on the incumbent regime with almost every leader accusing the Narendra Modi led Central Government of cultivating a sense of fear and hatred among fellow citizens.

The Congress president took on the Modi regime and the BJP by drawing parallels in between their mindset and that of Imperial rulers, alleging that both have same mindset. Cornering his BJP counterpart Amit Shah for allegedly referring nation as a “golden bird” in one of his speeches, Rahul said that Congress party perceives nation as river Ganges in which all other rivers and streams joins (symbolic of the fact that different ideologies and pluralities co-exist

together) while alleging that BJP sees the nation as a “golden bird” that is required to be “caged”.

 “We don’t see nation as golden bird but as a river. Interestingly, even the British didn’t see the nation as river but rather as a golden bird similarly as BJP does. What Amit Shah said in his speech was said by the British some70-80 years back,” said Rahul Gandhi.

“They are ready making a cage for it (golden bird) and we are involved in stopping them in making the cage”, said Gandhi. 

He also took a jibe at Amit Shah after his microphone went off for few seconds with a loud noise while he was addressing the gathering, “Amit Shah has switched off the microphone,” said Rahul no sooner his mic got restored within seconds.

The fifth conference of “Sanjhi Virasat Bachao Sammelan” was organized by Sharad Yadav of Loktantrik Janata Dal, a former Rajya-Sabha MP from Janata Dal (United).  Among other political bigwigs present were former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Farooq Abdullah of National Conference , ace journalist and editor of The Pioneer newspaper Chandan Mitra from Trinamool Congress (TMC),Tiruchi Siva of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam  (DMK), Sitaram Yechury of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jayant Chaudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) , Sudhakar Reddy of Communist Party of India (CPI), Dharmendra Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP),

Tariq Anwar  and other well known political figures shared the dais.

Dr  Chandan Mitra who is Editor and Managing Director of  The Pioneer newspaper, and who recently quit BJP and joined TMC said that “Sanjhi Virasat” is a kind of heritage that requires to be protected against destruction by the divisive forces. 

“Thousands who have come here firmly believe that Sanjhi Virasat is their birth right. It is this Virasat that we have inherited and have built over the centuries. It is our heritage and pride and we will protect it and will not let it be destroyed,” said Mitra.

He also said that those who do not agree with the present regime are subjected to undue pressure.

While National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah said that Kashmiris don’t want to separate from the nation and are not terrorists.  He urged for adopting the ideals of Mahatama Gandhi who strongly propagated secularism.

“Kashmiri’s are not terrorists and we don’t want toseparate from the nation. We will not support the idea of a nation where its people are not treated equally. No matter if a person is Hindu,Muslim, Christian or a Sikh all deserve equal treatment,” said Farooq Abdullah.