Kolkata rally: Leaders target Modi, Amit Shah; admit path to power is tough

kolkata-rally-leaders1 Leaders of opposition parties gathered at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground for a rally organised by WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee | Salil Bera

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday pulled Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge to pose between her and Sharad Pawar for a photograph of all leaders assembled at Brigade Parade Ground for the mega opposition unity rally.

Pawar, one of the most senior leaders of the country today, was visibly embarrassed with Mamata's desperation. But Mamata wanted to show her gratitude for the letter of support sent by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. Meanwhile, Pawar had to stand besides Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The photograph was organised at the media's request as Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswami had to fly back to Bangalore because of the troubling political situation in his state.

Kharge, the leader of the Congress in parliament, was late to the meeting. Before him, Abhishek Manu Singvi spoke and commended Banerjee as the “prominent leader in the fight against BJP”.

Banerjee soon called upon Pawer as the senior-most leader in the country to address the media. Pawer did not disappoint Banerjee and spoke against the policies of the Narendra Modi government. He expressed his thanks to her for organising such a huge rally.

Though the rally was a success, it was not as big as what Mamata Banerjee had wanted. She had boasted that her rally would break the record of legendary communist leader Jyoti Basu, who had organised very successful gatherings at the Brigade Parade ground.

In 1977, Basu's rally at the ground was attended by record number of people who then voted him to power for three decades. In 1984, he broke his own record when he organised an anti-Congress rally to press for demand of the states. This massive rally gave birth to the Sarkaria commission. Basu again broke the record in 1989 when he organised another rally to oust Rajiv Gandhi over the Bofors controversy. That historic rally was attended by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, V.P. Singh, L.K. Advani, Goerge Fernandez , EMS Namboodripath and N.T. Rama Rao among many others. Result was the national front government led by V.P. Singh with the support of the left and BJP.

Mamata's rally did not come close to any of those organised by Bose—in terms of people participation or enthusiasm. The ground had patches of empty spaces and the crowd started thinning when the leaders picked up the mike.

Surprisingly, the leaders who gathered for the rally were not against the BJP but trained their gun on the Modi-Shah duo.

None of the regional leaders lambasted the BJP as a whole or picked on any of its leaders. Many commended late Vajpayee, including Abishek Manu Singhvi, for not using the government as a tool against opposition leaders. Guns were instead pointed at two persons—Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

Akhilesh Yadav, Arivind Kejriwal, Farooq Abdullah and others lashed out at Modi and Shah. All of them asked people to vote against Modi and Shah in 2019.

“You cannot imagine how the situation would be if they come back to power in 2019. They said they would then rule for fifty years. I am alarmed at that situation,” said Kejriwal. “If the Modi-Shah combination continues to rule the country by winning the 2019 elections, they will change the Constitution and further elections will never take place. A fascist regime will set in as was done by Hitler in Germany,” Kejriwal said.

Emboldened by the unity, both Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and Kejriwal announced that similar opposition unity rallies would happen in Delhi and Amaravati very soon.

That Modi and Shah were the selected targets was evident from the fact that Vajpayee government ministers—Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Shratughan Sinha—were present in the dais. It seemed as if the leaders had problems only with Modi and Shah and chose not to embarrass the trio.

All the leaders complimented Banerjee for organising such a huge rally and termed Bengal as “the pulpit for heroes” and a game changer in 2019. Some of them—Stalin and Kumaraswami—called Banerjee an iron lady. But two veteran leaders—Kharge and Devegowda—warned that the target to oust Modi-Shah is tough and not at all easy.

“The path is full of thorns. The road is very difficult. But we would have to achieve this. Even if our minds don't meet, our hearts should meet,” Kharge said, quoting a shayari.

Devegowda asked the leaders to set aside the issue of prime minister and look forward, “If we argue about who would be the prime minister or who would lead us, our road would be more difficult. I am saying this because the road is already very difficult.”

Meanwhile, disgruntled BJP leader and MP Shatrughan Sinha, dared his party to sack him. “Yashwant Sinha told me that after attending this meeting I would be thrown out. I say so be it. If speaking truth is disgruntlement, so be it. I am ready to be expelled,” he said.

He said there was huge different between the NDA I and NDA II government. “Vajpayee was never anti-people, he was a saint. These leaders (Modi and Shah) are anti-people and frauds. They pushed people to death through demonetisation without taking the party into confidence. Vajpayee and Advani never did that,” said Sinha. Sinha also called Rahul a credible and able leader of the Congress.

He urged PM to explain why he decided to pay three times more for the same fighter jet in the Rafale deal. "The opposition has a few questions for you. Until you answer them, the public will continue to say that chowkidaar chor hai (the watchman is a thief)," he said.