Journalism of Courage
BJP today staged a huge rally in the national capital to mount pressure on the UPA over spiralling prices of essential commodities,with its leaders accusing the government of following “lopsided” economic policies.
Braving the sizzling weather,thousands of BJP activists joined the public meeting and the march to Parliament,the first big show of strength after Nitin Gadkari took over as party chief in December last year.
There was traffic chaos in central Delhi as vehicles crawled and commuters faced a harrowing time.
The BJP top brass,led by Gadkari and party veteran L K Advani,attacked the government for rising prices of items like rice,sugar,pulses,petrol,diesel and fertiliser.
Interestingly,during the public meeting Advani spoke before Gadkari which many read as an indicator of the change in the hierarchy within the right-wing party. Usually,Advani is the last to speak at a public meeting.
Gadkari used the occasion to lash out at the Manmohan Singh regime,saying the “wrong economic policies and bad governance” had resulted in price rise.
“Congress had given the slogan of garibi hatao but has worked towards increasing prices,” Gadkari alleged. He claimed that government figures show an increase of 41 crore in the number of BPL people.
“I have inflation rates of 25 countries where it is less than 2 per cent while in India it is 11 per cent…. Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have betrayed the trust reposed in them by the people,” Gadkari said.
He said no one in the Congress has been able to give a convincing answer on the issue of price rise.
Gadkari,who was chosen by the Sangh fountainhead RSS to lead a faction-ridden BJP,seems to have managed to take all camps within the party together for this rally which had been made a prestige issue by him.
Senior BJP leaders,including Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj,Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley,former party presidents Rajnath Singh,Murli Manohar Joshi and M Venkaiah Naidu,as well Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Minister of BJP-ruled states attended the public meeting.
Later,the leaders moved towards Parliament for a “gherao” but were arrested.
All the speakers sang praises of Gadkari and said the credit for organising a public meeting on such a huge scale goes to him.
However,the heat took its toll on Gadkari who fainted while moving towards Parliament to court arrest. He was then taken out of the ‘rath’ carrying the top leaders and whisked away in a car.
BJP supporters from several states and regions including Kerala,North-East,Rajasthan,Gujarat,Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir were mobilised for this meeting.
BJP has criticised the government on the issue of price rise in Parliament and outside it.
The party plans to bring cut motions in Lok Sabha during the ongoing budget session on increase in prices of petrol,diesel and fertiliser.
