Alleging that “lies and falsehood are the capital of the fascist BJP regime”, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin on Friday said the countdown to the end of the BJP rule had begun.
In his statement at a joint press meet held on behalf of the INDIA bloc of Opposition parties in Mumbai, Mr. Stalin alleged that the BJP had, during the past nine years of its rule, shown scant regard for democratic ethos, and now, it had become a threat to the very existence of democracy.
“The Modi government will go down in history as the one that destroyed democratic institutions and traditions by toppling elected governments of the Opposition. Maharashtra remains a testament to the BJP’s undermining of democracy. Dividing the Opposition and toppling their governments by splurging ill-gotten money and unleashing government agencies against them have become the full-time job of the BJP,” he said.
Contending that the very notion that there should be no political opponents was fascism, he alleged that India was witnessing a political dictatorship. He claimed that the Modi government had the least respect for Parliament and the courts.
“The Election Commission has become a puppet of this regime. The BJP has robbed all premier agencies and departments such as the ED, the CBI and the I-T of their independence and converted them into its hit squad. They are intimidating the Opposition as per the whims and fancies of their political masters (the BJP),” he alleged.
Mr. Stalin made it clear that the intention of the Opposition was not to unseat any one individual named Modi, and that they had no hatred or grudge against any individual.
“If the BJP comes to power again, India as we know it will cease to exist. That is why we oppose the BJP. Even though we belong to different parties, we have come together to save mother India. That is our foremost objective. We have not aligned with each other for political gain. We have teamed up to protect India’s sovereignty, dignity, secularism, social justice, federalism and fraternity,” he said.
Stating that the BJP was not an invincible party, he pointed out that it had been defeated in States such as Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.
He said the strength of the INDIA alliance, which comprised 19 parties when its leaders met in Patna, had grown to 26 parties in Bengaluru. “Today, in Mumbai, it increased to 28. We are gaining strength every day,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said Mr. Modi had become the Public Relations Officer of the INDIA bloc by speaking ill of the alliance instead of projecting his government’s achievements. “I thank our PM Narendra Modi for making the INDIA alliance popular,” he said.
Claiming that the poor and the needy had not benefited from the BJP government, and that their standard of living had not improved, Mr. Stalin felt the future of Indian citizens was in peril in the face of a growing atmosphere of hate.
“India’s stature has declined all over the world because of the hate, communal violence and crony capitalism virulently spread by the BJP regime,” he alleged.
Mr. Stalin said the time had come to end the BJP’s attempts to impose uniformity in everything through ideas such as One Nation, One Tax; One Nation, One Language; One Nation, One Culture; One Nation, One Food; One Nation, One Education Policy; One Nation, One Election; and One Nation, One Party.
