GUWAHATI: The BJP’s statewide public march against anti-national forces in Assam reached three more towns on October 15. BJP’s state leadership accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of casting doubt on India’s constitutional institutions to hide their election humiliations. Tens of thousands of people joined the marches in Tezpur, Dibrugarh and Barpeta Road to lodge their protest against the blackmailing tactics of the INDI Alliance parties.
The rallies followed similar gatherings over the previous two days in Nalbari, Jorhat, Silchar and Guwahati. BJP state headquarters in Guwahati said that young people, farmers and women have all joined the marches spontaneously in support of our great country.
“Bad dancers blames the courtyard”
There is a famous Assamese saying, a bad dancer blames uneven courtyards. BJP compares the failure of Rahul Gandhi as a leader with the Assamese proverb, “Nachibo najane chotal beka”, which means you don’t know how to dance and blaming the courtyard was uneven. The BJP said the saying fits the Opposition, which it accused of looking for scapegoats after repeated electoral losses.
BJP further said the Congress has lost more than a hundred elections under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. The Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena are just following in the footsteps of the Congress party. The saffron party accused the Opposition, rather than rebuilding and listening to voters, has chosen to question the Election Commission of India. It singled out the Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which it said the Opposition is using to spread suspicion.
People stand with Modi
At Barpeta Road, state BJP president Dilip Saikia joined the march, where more than 20,000 people joined the BJP leadership. President Saikia claimed that “destructive forces” have spent days trying to unsettle the country and have even teamed up with foreign powers hostile to India.
“The people stand with Modi, not Rahul Gandhi,” he said, adding that the march was held to defend the nation’s interests. He said that after what he called six decades of misgovernance, the country has already given the Gandhi family a decisive political rebuke.
Cabinet minister Ashwini Rai Sarkar, party vice-president Manoj Baruah and Barpeta district BJP president Sabita Debnath were among those present.
Sonowal invokes the Emergency
In Dibrugarh, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal led what the party called the Jan Jagaran Samadal. More than 15,000 joined the march and said people from many walks of life took part in the protest rally.
Sonowal went back to history in his speech. He called the Congress “the perennial adversary of India” and pointed to the Emergency of 1975, accusing the party of conspiring then to dismantle the country’s legal framework and democratic foundations. For that reason, he said, people no longer trust it.
The march was organised against anti-national activities by the Congress, the INDI Alliance, whom it accused of aligning with forces hostile to India. The protest meeting that followed was conducted by state general secretary Rituparna Baruah. State ministers Bimal Bora and Rameswar Teli addressed the crowd, along with senior MLA Prasanta Phukan and MLA Chakradhar Gogoi.
Youth at the forefront
The Sonitpur district unit of the BJP organised the Tezpur march, which the party described as youth-led. About 18,000 young people, party workers and office-bearers joined the march. Participants chanted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” along the route.
Cabinet minister Ashok Singhal, MP Ranjit Dutta and MLAs Pallab Lochan Das, Padma Hazarika, Krishna Kamal Tanti and Ritubaran Sharma were among the leaders present.
The BJP said the three marches continue a series of public demonstrations across Assam. It described the campaign as a show of solidarity with the nation, support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and confidence in India’s constitutional bodies.
