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New Delhi: Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh on Saturday said that the INDIA alliance’s ‘Loktantra Bachao’, which is scheduled to be held on Sunday at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, will not be centred around any individual but focus on a number of issues, particularly “saving India’s democracy and the Constitution”.
“Tomorrow’s rally is not individual-centric. That is why it has been named the ‘Loktantra Bachao’ rally. The issue is saving democracy and the Constitution,” Ramesh said in a press conference here.
Ramesh, who is also Congress general secretary and communication in-charge, said that another issue on which the rally is being held includes the centre’s misuse of agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the opposition parties in which many ministers, including a sitting chief minister – Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal – has been arrested and put behind bars.
He listed the issues, including inflation, youth unemployment, the suppression of farmers, the misuse of government agencies, the electoral bonds scam and more, to the discussed in the rally.
Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi minister Gopal Rai claimed on Friday that the rally, which will begin at 10 am on Sunday, is being held in support of Kejriwal, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 31 in the alleged excise policy scam.
Delhi Congress President Arvind Singh Lovely said that the rally is being organised against the arrests made by the BJP-ruled central government whether it was Hemant Soren in Jharkhand or Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, just ahead of the elections as they (BJP) do not have a level playing field.
“…Their only focus is using the government machinery to disturb the Opposition and democratic values for the murder of democracy,” he alleged.
Also Read: Ahead of INDIA bloc rally, Congress slams tax notice; BJP flags ‘internal conflicts’
Ramesh said that one of the main issues the rally would address would be the “safety of the Constitution of India”.
“BJP and RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] leaders are saying that they will rewrite the Constitution. This Constitution’s tenure has finished. It has passed its expiry date. A new Constitution is needed. And Constitutional principles of secularism, socialism, social justice are all in danger.”, he said.
He said that all the participating parties were making efforts towards mobilisation and that people would be present in the thousands inside and around Ramlila Maidan, sending a “powerful message” rejecting the current government.
He added that senior leaders from all INDIA alliance parties, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC), with which the Congress failed to work out a seat-sharing formula in West Bengal, would also participate in the rally.
Top leaders from the opposition INDIA bloc are set to hold a rally in Delhi on Sunday.
The leaders who are to address the rally will include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader Rahul Gandhi, TMC MP Derek O’Brien, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) chief Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Tejaswi Yadav of the Rahstriya Janata Dal, Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), D Raja of the Communist Party of India, Farooq Abdullah of the J&K National Conference, Mehbooba Mufti of the J&K People’s democratic front, Champai Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Tiruchi Siva of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Deepankar Bhattacharya of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, G. Devarajan of the All India Forward Bloc and Sunil Singh of the Lok Dal.
Top AAP leaders, including Atishi, Gopal Rai, Saurabh Bhardwaj and Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will also attend the rally.
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