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The Times of India
The Times of India
National
PTI

Patna: In presence of Left leaders, Tejashwi Yadav presents report card on NDA 'misrule'

PATNA: The opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar on Sunday charged the BJP-led NDA, which rules the Centre as well as the state, with imposing an "undeclared emergency" on the country wherein dissent is being stamped out by "misuse" of probe agencies and smear campaigns are launched against those critical of the regime.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, the leader of the opposition in the state, besides CPI and CPI(ML) secretaries general D Raja and Dipankar Bhattacharya respectively, were among those who addressed a mammoth gathering in Patna.

The meeting was organised on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the call given by Jayaprakash Narayan for "sampoorna Kranti" (total revolution) on this date at the historic Gandhi Maidan in the city.

The occasion was also marked by Yadav presenting a "report card" on the alleged misrule of the Nitish Kumar government which has been ruling the state since 2005 except for a period of less than two years during which Yadav's party allied with the JD(U) and he served as the deputy chief minister.

Yadav said his report card sought to underscore that the government in the state, though headed by Kumar, a socialist, was being run "as per the agenda of Nagpur", an allusion to the headquarters of the RSS, the apex body of the Sangh Parivar of which the BJP is the political offshoot.

He lambasted the NDA for achieving "power through backdoor", an obvious reference to the BJP and Kumar's sudden realignment in 2017 after nearly four years of acrimony, and alleged misuse of administrative machinery in the 2020 assembly elections wherein the Grand Alliance stopped short of winning a majority.

The young RJD leader claimed that his party was "the only regional outfit which has never compromised with the BJP" and reminded the people of his father Lalu Prasad, who "has not been cowed down despite all investigating agencies having been let loose against him".

He said there is "aghoshit aapatkaal" (undeclared emergency) in the country and mocked the "Hindu khatre mein hai" (Hindus are in danger) refrain of pro-BJP elements.

Yadav wondered why they felt threatened by Muslims when no member of the minority community is currently holding top constitutional posts.

D Raja, who interspersed his brief English speech with a smattering of Hindi, underscored the need for opposition unity to "save our beloved nation and save our constitution".

Bhattacharya began his fiery speech with the admission that his party had been opposed to the RJD, unlike the CPI and the CPI-M, "till recently" but changed tack for "a big battle" against what he termed as "communalism morphed into communal fascism".

"They started with Babri Masjid and now they are after Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar", fumed Bhattacharya who said he was proud to have been associated with the Naxalbari uprising which "still strikes terror in the minds of the current regime, a reason why they like to call people names like urban naxals".

He also recalled the deep roots of the naxal movement in Bihar where his party surprised all in the last assembly polls by winning a dozen seats, its best performance since entry into electoral politics three decades ago.

Conspicuous by its absence at the function was the Congress which was the second largest constituent of the Grand Alliance in the Assembly elections.

References to the party came in speeches of some of the speakers, including Bhattacharya, who remembered the anti-Emergency struggle resulting in "overthrow of the Congress, which was then perhaps more powerful than the BJP is today".

Congress legislature party leader Ajeet Sharma said, "We were neither intimated about nor invited" to the function, even though state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal alleged that the RJD was "sitting in the lap of Rahul Gandhi whom it wants to make the prime minister".

The Congress has been sore over the RJD ignoring its claim on one of the assembly seats where by-elections were held last year.

The party has, since, been struggling to find the ground under its feet in the state where it has for long been a spent force.

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