NEW DELHI, AUG 20 (AGENCIES) | Publish Date: 8/20/2021 12:25:08 PM IST
19 Oppn parties to hold protests from Sept 20-30
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday urged top opposition leaders to rise above political compulsions to take on the BJP in the interest of the nation and start planning “systematically” to realise the “ultimate goal” of winning the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to provide a government that believes in the values of the freedom movement and provisions of the Constitution.
Gandhi gave the clarion call at a virtual meeting of leaders of 19 opposition parties including NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and four non-Congress chief ministers–TMC’s Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), DMK’s MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Shiv Sena’sUddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and JMM’s Hemant Soren (Jharkhand)– hosted by her, after which they decided to move unitedly against the BJP and hold joint protests across the country from September 20 to 30.
Gandhi also told the meeting — one of the biggest gatherings of opposition leaders in recent times –that there is simply no alternative to working cohesively.
“…We all have our compulsions, but clearly, a time has come when the interests of our nation demand that we rise above them,” Gandhi said.
The opposition leaders urged the people of the country to save India for a better tomorrow even as Pawar said those who believe in democracy and secularism must come together for saving the democratic principles and ethos of our country and collectively draw up a “time-bound action programme”.
“We must collectively prioritize each issue and solve them one by one to give our country a good present and future,” Pawar said in a series of tweets.
West Bengal chief minister Banerjee also urged all parties to unitedly defeat the BJP in the next general elections due in 2024, and called for a core committee of leaders to chalk out the joint agitational programme. Chief Minister Stalin tweeted to say federalism is being “destroyed” due to the “scant respect” the BJP has for states’ rights, and it is imperative that the opposition stands united at this hour.
The leaders also put out a 11-point charter of demands before the government, including a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the Pegasus snooping row, repeal of the three farm laws, early elections in Jammu and Kashmir and early release of all political detainees and a high-level probe into the Rafale jet deal.
Joint protest: In a joint statement issued by leaders of the 19 parties, they said, “We will jointly organise protest actions all over the country from 20th to 30th September, 2021.”
The leaders said the forms of these public protest actions will be decided by the respective state units of their parties, depending on the concrete conditions of the Covid regulations and protocols in the states. These forms, amongst others, may include dharnas, protest demonstrations and hartals, according to the joint statement.
“We, the leaders of 19 Opposition parties, call upon the people of India to rise to the occasion to defend our secular, democratic, republican order with all our might. Save India today, so that we can change it for a better tomorrow,” they said.
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