GUWAHATI: On December 19, hundreds of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protesters marched from Gopal Boro High School, Ganeshguri in Guwahati and moved towards the Congress headquarters, Rajiv Bhawan located at ABC. The ruling party’s attempt was to gherao Rajiv Bhawan over the allegations made on BJP by Congress on the Rafale Deal.
As the BJP workers shouted slogans against the Congress during their march, Guwahatians were stranded in traffic for several hours along the ever-busy stretch of GS Road.
“Squabbles take place between political leaders. And as usual, the common man has to suffer,” Bitupan Bora, a resident of Guwahati said.
Not only the commuters of GS Road but also the students of Dispur Higher Secondary School faced a tough time. The protest made it difficult for students of Dispur College to concentrate on their final examinations.
According to officials of the college, the final examination of degree third-year students and a unit test for second-year higher secondary students was going on while a meeting was being held as part of the BJP protest in the field adjacent to the college premises, hence creating a chaotic situation in the area for around two hours.
The HS examination started at 9 AM and concluded at noon, while the examination for degree students was conducted from 1 PM to 4 PM, around the same time that the massive protest rally took place.
A resident of Guwahati, speaking to G Plus, questioned the BJPs move to gherao the Rajiv Bhawan and protest on the streets of Guwahati saying, “Why are they on GS Road? Wasn't Chachal supposed to be the place for protests?”
If the attempted gherao wasn’t enough, the Congress officials again took to the streets of Guwahati on December 21 to protest against the BJP.
Following a war of words between Rahul Gandhi, Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma after a series of tweets rebutting Congress President Rahul Gandhi's comment by CM Sarbananda Sonowal, Congress workers in Guwahati burnt the effigies of CM Sonowal and Assam Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Ranjeet Kumar Dass.
The Congress workers staged a protest outside Rajiv Bhawan against the objectionable comments of Sonowal and Dass about the party and its president Rahul Gandhi.
India is slowly becoming a fascist country under BJP, says Ranjan Bora
The BJP, after presenting misleading facts in front of the Supreme Court, has no right to gherao the Rajiv Bhawan, said Ranjan Bora, general secretary of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee.
The Congress Party is of the belief that the BJP’s vision of India is majoritarian, exclusive, discriminatory and illiberal; and the country under BJP ruling is slowly becoming a fascist country.
Speaking to G Plus about the ruling party’s attempt to gherao the opposition’s office, Bora added, “With this gherao, the fascist mentality of the party has come out in front of the citizens. Just because of constitutional obligations, the BJP has to show their faith in democracy while in reality the party is inspired by Hitler’s fascist ideas.”
The Congress has taken a strong note about the apex court’s decision on the deal and has now demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to be set up for the Rafale Deal. “If the Congress can set up a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) for Bofors scam, Harshad Mehta stock market scam, 2G spectrum allocation scam and VVIP helicopter procurement scam, so why not a JPC for Rafale scam?” officials remarked.
“The SC is not an investigating agency. So the corruption in the Rafale deal cannot be expected to be uncovered by them. It is only due to the presentation of wrong facts to the SC that the Court had given its judgement but it has now come to light that the BJP had misinformed the SC at every step,” explained Bora.
Rahul Gandhi should be removed from the position of public servant: BJP
Countering Congress’ allegations, BJP president Ranjit Kumar Dass said, “Whatever the Congress Party and its president has said about the Rafale deal are complete and blatant lies. It is a very serious matter that an elected representative of the country is misleading the citizens on the basis of inaccurate facts. Rahul Gandhi's behaviour and acts in this matter have been insensitive to the security and safety of the country and they appear anti-national. We demand that in the interest of national security and the international image of the country, Rahul Gandhi should be removed from the position of public servant for playing with such an important issue of national security.”
BJP officials continue to claim that the PILs submitted to the Supreme Court pertaining to the Rafale deal are accurate and the court has given its decision after finding that the overall process in the agreement transparent and as per the rules.
“It is unfortunate that the Congress party, that had earlier kept dilly-dallying this important need of the armed forces for years, is today misleading the people of the country on the basis of inaccurate facts,” the BJP president exclaimed.