Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 2: At least three opposition chief ministers on Wednesday gave a call for opposition unity to “throw the BJP in the Bay of Bengal” and launched a scathing attack on the prime minister Narendra Modi.
While the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee called for co-operation of all to create an anti-BJP front, the Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin has written to leaders cutting across regional and political lines has written to leaders cutting across regional and political lines pointing out that the country was “under threat of bigotry and religious hegemony” and invited them to nominate their party representatives to the All India Federation for Social Justice, a platform he formed on Republic Day, to fight the divisive forces. Stalin mentioned in the letter that “these forces can only be fought if all who believe in equality, self-respect and social justice unite together.”
The Telangana chief minister KCR Rao while slamming the prime minister over what the BJP claims “Gujarat model of governance,” invited the opposition parties to join hands to throw the “BJP in the Bay of Bengal.” Criticising the union budget, Rao said, “Now is the time to throw the BJP into the Bay of Bengal. I appeal to people, change is needed. I am talking to people. Indians have to awaken. These people who create communal disturbances, this needs to change. In the coming days, we will work for the country. In what role, I am not sure yet,” he said, insisting that he is not fighting to become Prime Minister. The Telangana Congress, however, in turn criticised Rao claiming that his government too like the Modi government at the centre, had failed to deliver the promises he made to the people during the elections.
Banerjee after being re-elected as the chairperson of the All India Trinamool Congress during the party’s organisational election Wednesday, laid down her party’s roadmap for national expansion and sought the cooperation of all anti-BJP fronts in the country to oust the saffron party from power in 2024.
“Today, I ask my party workers and leaders to strengthen the organisation as we have to oust the BJP from power in 2024. If we can oust the CPM from West Bengal after 34 years of its rule, then we can definitely remove the BJP from the country. They are our main enemy,” she said.
Targeting Congress, which is yet to enter into an understanding with TMC for the upcoming state Assembly elections, Banerjee said, “I feel sad to see that the Congress is fighting the election in favour of the BJP in Meghalaya and Chandigarh. We want all anti-BJP fronts to come together. But if someone thinks otherwise and remains arrogant, then we have to choose our own path. Regional parties must come together to defeat the BJP.”
Banerjee also said just like Congress emerged as a national party from Uttar Pradesh and BJP from Gujarat, her Trinamool Congress has emerged as the national party from West Bengal. She also sent a strong message to her party workers and leaders to remain united and asked them not to have a confrontation among each other.
“We will not indulge in any activity that will strengthen the BJP in Bengal. First, we have to strengthen our organisation in Bengal. There is only one group in TMC. Everyone has to work together,” said Banerjee.
Pointing out that he created the platform All India Federation for Social Justice to create a roadmap to take forward the battle for social justice in India and to identify the areas to bring about a common minimum programme to be uniformly adopted by all states, Stalin in his letter said, “As I write this, our unique, diverse, multi-cultural federation is under threat of bigotry and religious hegemony. These forces can only be fought if all who believe in equality, self-respect and social justice unite together. It is not a question of political gain but re-establishing the pluralistic identity of our Republic, as visualised by our founding fathers,” he wrote.
The letter has been sent to 37 leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, D Raja, Sitaram Yechury, N Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal, Memboobha Mufti, Chandrasekara Rao, Uddhav Thackeray and Akhilesh Yadav. Tamil leaders who got the letter were AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam, PMK founder S Ramadoss, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan and Vaiko.
Stalin said the federation had been essentially formed to forge a common platform for all leaders, members of civil society, like-minded individuals and organisations to strive towards achieving the principles of federalism and social justice at national level. “Social Justice as an ideology is simple – ‘everything for everyone’. It is the belief that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities. Only by ensuring this equality of opportunity can we build the egalitarian society visualised by the framers of our Constitution,” Stalin said.
“The DMK has re-affirmed its commitment to battle for social justice at every turn, as exemplified by our recent politico-legal battle to obtain 27% OBC reservations in state contributed seats to All India Quota in medical and dental courses across the country. However, reservations are not sufficient to ensure social justice,” Stalin wrote.
“At every step, the oppressed must be accorded positive affirmation to enable them to unshackle centuries of oppression and exclusion from mainstream society. We must take extraordinary steps to eradicate gender discrimination along with caste discrimination, and also enable the differently abled to compete in the mainstream,” he further stated, adding that he firmly believes that “the time has finally arrived to stand together as a true Union of States to achieve the aforesaid objectives. We must unite with the same conviction and purpose as we did in order to establish the Mandal Commission. In each State, the oppressed classes are yearning to have the doors of opportunity opened to them,” he wrote.
In Hyderabad, attacking Modi, KCR, the one-time ally of the BJP, said the Prime Minister “dresses for elections” and his budget exemplifies “style without substance.” He ripped into the PM and the BJP calling the union budget “terrible and golmaal” (chaotic). “Upar Shervani, andar pareshani (all style, no substance),” the Chief Minister quipped, mocking the “Gujarat model” that the BJP flaunts as an example of PM Modi’s governance. Ironically, KCR has been accused in the past of being the B-team for the BJP and his Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has mostly backed the Modi government on key legislation in Parliament.
“With social media management, lying blatantly, repeating a lie again and again, they managed to fool the people so far. But now they have been exposed. They play communal politics of hate and division,” he said. On PM Modi, he sneered: “If it is election time, he has to grow a beard and appear like Rabindranath Tagore. Arrey baap re. If it is Tamil Nadu, he must wear a lungi (sic), what is this?…What does the country get with these kind of gimmicks, what does the country get? If it is the Punjab election, he will wear a pagdi (turban). In Manipur, it will be a Manipuri cap, in Uttarakhand, it will be another topi (cap), how many caps like this?”
The Telangana Chief Minister is scheduled to meet his Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray soon as part of his ongoing Project 2024 to bring various opposition forces together as an alternative to the BJP and the Congress. He has already consulted with MK Stalin, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, as also with other senior leaders of the CPM and CPI. “There’s a need for qualitative change in the nation,” Mr Rao told reporters on his meeting with Uddhav Thackeray.
KCR also said there was a need for debate to change the Indian constitution. “Many countries do this every once in a while. Both the Congress and the BJP have not respected cooperative federalism. We need to rethink what is right for us,” he said.
But his comments on Modi over the union budget which has been condemned by the BJP, has also drawn criticism from the Congress. In a tweet, the Telangana Congress accused KCR of trying to divert attention from critical issues in the state. “This fellow is not capable of issuing promised job notifications and he talks about rewriting Indian Constitution. Modi is child compared to KCR when it comes to diverting public attention,” the Telangana Congress tweeted, along with a video of KCR criticising the Union Budget.
KCR is upset that the Budget announcement provided for an arbitration centre for dispute resolution to be set up in Gujarat’s GIFT City, when such a facility already exists in Hyderabad. “If the centre has magnanimity, they should have praised the Hyderabad centre. They should have appreciated Telangana government,” he said. “How painful it is that the centre is behaving like this? Such a short-sighted Prime Minister for this country… We are feeling sad that we have such a narrow-minded centre,” KCR said.
