AICC spokesperson W CDR (retd) Anuma Acharya on Thursday said the BJP is boasting to win over 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections because autonomous institutions like the Election Commission of India (ECI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have all become its members.
“The BJP is boasting because ECI, ED CBI they also have become the members of the BJP,” Acharya told reporters.
Alleging that all autonomous institutions have been strangulated and subjugated, Acharya said, “Use of ED, CBI, IT against opposition, to illegally overthrow elected governments has become a norm.”
Asked on what steps the Congress will take to insulate such institutions from political influences, the AICC spokesperson said, “People should be awakened, people should be fearless then only they can elect a democratic government. When a democratic government comes, everything will come into its place. As of now, we cannot say we can do this and we can do that to ECI because now the government has also changed the procedures of selection of ECI. Now only one cabinet along with the PM and for the name sake one leader of opposition will be in the electoral process. They have removed the Supreme Court’s CJI from that process. Therefore, we cannot make bigger claims, it is only one way which is the democratic way, which is polls, which is the elections, which are unbiased then only all can be revived.”
The AICC spokesperson was in Shillong to announce that the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will commence from Manipur. The 66 days yatra will cover around 6700 kilometres and it will pass through 110 districts before culminating at Mumbai on March 30.
She said the 10 years of grave injustice “Anyaay” by the BJP government has severely hurt the people, the democracy and the constitution.
Acharya said the unprecedented unemployment has completely shattered the dreams and futre of our youth. The backbreaking price rise has extinguished the hard-earned savings of our poor and middle-class. Income inequality is at its peak.
“A handful of billionaires rule and puppet the present dispensation, SCs, STs, OBCs, minority and the poor have been systematically discriminated against. Farmers have been betrayed. Women have been deceived. Laws are made by suspending the entire opposition. National security has been grievously endangered by giving clean chit to China,” she said while adding that the social, economic and political lives of citizens have been destroyed through a noisy din of Jumlas, PR stunts, glitzy events and sabotaging institutions.
“India has now realized that it shall raise its voice, together, in a powerful manner in the forthcoming 2024 election through the – Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by our leader, Rahul Gandhi. India will fight – Nyay Ka Haq Milne Tak!” she said.
To a question whether the yatra will have an impact on the coming elections, Acharya said, “It will definitely have an impact but I cannot comment on whether it is going to convert into votes, we don’t know but somebody has to take this fight on, fight for democracy, fight for safeguarding our constitution, which is badly ruined by the BJP. So converting into votes, I cannot say that. At the same time efforts are on, the opposition is on the roads. We will have people who will keep on protesting.”
She however maintained that the yatra is not political and said, “I cannot comment on how many seats we are going to get. So it is basically to have a mission and the mission is to awaken people that they need not be afraid. It is mainly towards that.”
Reacting to a statement of an NPP leader that Congress is projecting the wrong person as its leader, the AICC leader said, “You name one opposition leader who is as fearless as Rahul Gandhi and asking questions to the government. They are so afraid of him that they have ruined his image, that they have spent crores of rupees to ruin his image, everybody knows that. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is in that perception. People now know that he is one person who comes from the family of martyrs and he is going to take the country (forward) because he loves the country so much.”
Talking about unemployment, Acharya said that the number of jobless people has tripled, from 1 crore (in 2012) to 4 crore (in 2022). The uemployment rate is 45 year high. One in three graduates is looking for a job, but not getting.
She said petrol, diesel, LPG, CNG, atta, dal, rice, cooking oil, milk – everything has become expensive. GST was imposed on essential commodities. Household savings are at a 50-year low adding 3 black laws by Modi Govt forcing farmers to sit on a one-year dharna, 750 farmers martyred. At least one farmer dies by suicide every hour in India (NCRB 2022).
She said since 2013, crimes against dalits increased by 46.11% and crimes against adivasis increased by 48.15% even as she asked why is the Modi government running away from a caste census.
The AICC leader further stated that the NCRB shows that crimes against women are the highest now, with 51 FIRs filed every hour in 2022. “BJP releases rapists, protects accused and offenders like Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, Sengar etc,” she alleged.
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