Opposition bloc rally in Delhi a carnival of corrupt: BJP

Senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc’s Maharally at the Ramlila Maidan on Sunday a “flop show” and “disunited rally” even as the party ran an online campaign calling the gathering a “carnival of the corrupt” (thagon ka mela).
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that the alliance has failed to make a mark in its first show in Delhi with the people of Delhi rejecting the rally call by the two main partners — Aam Aadmi Party and Congress.
“It was a disunited rally recording the presence of a motley crowd of around a few thousand, most of them brought from Punjab and Haryana. Leaders of both Delhi Congress and AAP who were making tall claims on the rally for the last week could not enthuse even their own party workers, leave alone the people of Delhi,” Sachdeva said.
Sachdeva added that the disunity between AAP and Congress was apparent as the photo of Arvind Kejriwal put up near the podium was relocated. “It was well known the Congress has no ground base in Delhi but the rally has shown that AAP leadership too has lost connection with Delhiites. The rally was a flop show with 61 AAP MLAs failing to muster people for the rally,” he added.
Saying that Kejriwal has now created conditions where he has united with people he previously called corrupt, Parvesh Verma, BJP MP from West Delhi said: “A few years ago, Kejriwal protested against the corruption of the leaders of the Indi alliance in Ramlila Maidan and today, the same leaders have united,” said Verma.
Other BJP members reiterated the statement and said it was ironical how Kejriwal — who shot to fame during the anti-corruption movement — has now been arrested in an alleged corruption case.
“Kejriwal was shouting their names asking to arrest them… but today he himself is arrested in the matter of corruption,” BJP MP from North East Delhi and the former president of Delhi BJP, Manoj Tiwari said, adding that under the excise policy, liquor vends were opened at educational and religious places in Delhi.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that in August 2011, millions of people came uninvited to the same Ramlila Maidan to support Kejriwal against the “then-corrupt” Congress government. “Today, despite spending crores of rupees, AAP could not gather even a few thousand people. The people of Delhi have rejected them,” said Kapoor.
Responding to the “match-fixing” remark by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said “the Gandhi family had done deal-fixing”.
“Some people are talking about match fixing. In 1974, the Indira Gandhi government, compromising the country’s national interest and interest of the people of Tamil Nadu, handed over Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka to benefit the Congress’ first family…Rahul Gandhi ji, your family had done a deal-fixing.”
Poonawalla slammed the Congress over Gandhi’s claim that the entire country will be on fire if BJP returns to power as “the party seems to amend the Constitution”. “Divisive politics is in the “DNA” of the main opposition, he alleged.
Rajya Sabha member, Sudhanshu Trivedi, also attacked the Opposition rally and said that its leaders were trying to galvanise people’s support at a time when investigative agencies had launched action against top leaders of the bloc, adding that they were allegedly embroiled in corrpution.
“Ramlila Maidan once hosted ‘India against corruption’ movement under the leadership of Anna Hazare… now hosting a rally for ‘everybody with corruption’, said Trivedi.