NEW DELHI: India’s main opposition party the Indian National Congress (INC) decided to organise nationwide protests on Monday against the country’s main ruling party – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), over the latter’s attempts to “topple” INC-led state governments.
Prior to Monday’s protests, the opposition party would organise a nationwide online campaign “Speak up for Democracy” on Sunday. Senior leaders of the party have been urged to post videos on different social media platforms highlighting the issue of BJP “subverting the constitutional values and democratic institutions in a dangerously premeditated manner.”
In a statement, INC’s General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal said that the very constitutional and democratic frame of the nation is facing an unprecedented attack from the BJP.
He added that horse trading (term used for influencing elected legislators by offering monetary considerations) to topple democratically elected governments has become the normal, and what is all the more deplorable is that the BJP is going all
out to unsettle elected governments, thereby derailing the process of governance and preparedness to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and other pending issues. In the statement the INC leader alleged that first the BJP toppled the democratically elected INC government in central state of Madhya Pradesh, and now a similar desperate attempt is being undertaken in western state of Rajasthan.
“It is a matter of utmost shame that the BJP is misusing the high constitutional office of the Governor in states to destabilise the elected governments,” he added.
