Reiterating the party’s charge that the Harish Rawat Government is seeking to gag the voice of dissent by unleashing the police on the Opposition, the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president, Teerath Singh Rawat, said on Wednesday that his party MlAs would boycott the Chief Minister’s programmes to be held in any part of the State.
“BJP MlAs and leaders would neither participate in CM’s programmes nor would they meet the Chief Minister over any issues. Moreover, the BJP supporters and leaders would show black flags to the CM during his programmes,” he said while addressing the press conference at BJP State office. He further said that his party would launch a full-blown campaign ‘Save Democracy’ across the State to mark the birth anniversary of lok Nayak Jayprakash Narayan on October 11.
Referring to the police action against the BJP MlAs when they were peacefully protesting over several issues outside the CM’s residence- Bijapur Guest House- on Monday, he said the CM had trampled the norms of democracy by such an action. “He should have talked to us instead of unleashing police on us,” he said.
In step with the state party’s line, he said the CM is framing the BJP MlAs in false cases. “The state government is turning authoritarian. This augurs ill for democracy in the state,” he said.
lauding Jayprakash Narayan as the iconic crusader of democracy, the state BJP chief said he had thrown gauntlet to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when the latter had attempted to throttle democracy by way of the infamous Emergency. “Narayan is still a beacon for all the democracy- loving people of the country. Deriving inspiration from his struggle for democracy, we have decided to launch a campaign to save democracy to mark the legendary leader’s birth anniversary on October 11.
On the occasion, BJP supporters and leaders would stage protest at the district levels. The BJP MlAs would meet the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh some day between October 21 and October 27 to inform him about the grim state of things here,” he said.
“A number of BJP MlAs like Rajkumar Thukral, Puran Singh Fartyal and Arvind Pandey have been framed in false cases. We would ask Singh to intervene,” he said.
Dwelling on the party’s line regarding the upcoming Assembly session scheduled in November at Gairsain, he said they would participate. “However, we would protest inside and outside the Assembly against the state government’s wrong policies. Besides, BJP supporters would gherao the Vidhan Sabha at Gairsain when the Assembly session would be on,” he stated.