INDIA partners announce joint rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on March 31

He further said, “Before Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest, we all have seen how in Jharkhand too the CM (Hemant Soren) was arrested, we have seen how throughout the country, be it the CM of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, or be it Tejashwi Yadav from Bihar, or be it the leaders of INDIA alliance from different parts of the country, fraudulent cases are being imposed on all of them to with an intention to silence them.”

Rai expressed outrage over the “treatment of opposition leaders” following Kejriwal’s arrest. “On the one hand they have arrested the CM, and on the other, they have converted the whole national capital into a prison. When the Vidhayaks (MLAs) reached Kejriwal’s residence during his arrest, they too were arrested. The next morning they reached his house to meet his family; then, his family was put under house arrest as they (officials) prohibited entry (of the legislators). When the AAP started protesting, they placed barricades at the AAP head office. The MCC (Model Code of Conduct) has currently been put in place; at such a time, the head office of a party is getting sealed and I was not allowed to enter the party office despite being the Pradesh Adhyaksh (state chief),” he said.

“It was Shahidi Diwas yesterday and we had to struggle to offer our respect to Bhagat Singh. We were being treated like criminals…as if offering respect to the martyrs is also a crime,” Rai said.

Rai also accused the BJP of benefiting through electoral bonds. “The BJP is repeatedly saying that they are getting the opposition leaders arrested on account of corruption but the BJP has itself filled its coffers with crores of money with the help of electoral bonds but neither the CBI, nor the Supreme Court or the ED has questioned this…meanwhile, the accounts of our friends from Congress have been sealed due to which the party is unable to campaign today,” he said.

Rai said that today the whole opposition is uniting because the country is in danger. “If the bank accounts of such an old party can be sealed then every businessman who chooses to not fill the BJP’s coffers is also unsafe,” Rai said.

Meanwhile, Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh Lovely said, “Our leader Rahul Gandhi has been trying to save the country’s democracy…in a situation like this when the democracy is being challenged then there is no way the Congress will sit without protesting.”

Lovely questioned: “Why did Bhagat Singh sacrifice his life at such a young age, why did Mahatma Gandhi fight for this country? They fought for us so that we could enjoy freedom but the kind of atmosphere that has been created in the country is something that Gandhi and Bhagat Singh would have never imagined…they do not want to provide the opposition with even a level-playing field. You seal the bank account of the biggest and the oldest party in the country right before the elections and you call this a democracy?”

On the March 31 rally, Lovely said, “We will have a big rally… This will not just be a political rally, it will be a rally where the whole nation will question the threat that is looming over the country’s democracy…I appeal not just the Congress workers and sympathisers but also the RWAs (Residents’ Welfare Associations) and people of Delhi to show up in large number.”

Rajiv Kunwar from the CPI (M) said, “The moment Kejriwal was arrested we expressed our opposition. The opposition is not just towards the arrest of a Chief Minister but against dictatorial rule. …We will show up in large numbers on the 31st.”

Said Subhash Chopra from Congress, “The type of situation that is being created in Delhi, how will that be controlled? I would like to tell the people that this rally is against inflation, this rally is against suppression…The way the CM was arrested at an odd hour…the whole world is discussing (that).”