Congress takes out ‘Tiranga Yatras’ on anniversary of overthrow of Kamal Nath govt in MP

Both the BJP and the Congress organised programmes to mark the completion of one year of the overthrow of the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh on March 20. While Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan hosted a massive lunch to mark what he called the BJP's return to power, Congress took out ‘Tiranga Yatras’ to condemn what it termed as the murder of democracy.

The lunch was organised in honour of Jyotiraditrya Scindia and his supporters, who enabled the BJP to form the government in the state again. Scindia visited Bhopal just to join the lunch.

Congress marked the anniversary of the 'murder of democracy' by observing ‘Save Democracy, Save Constitution’ day. Besides Bhopal, Tiranga Yatras were taken out in all the districts and major towns of the state. Congress leaders paid floral tribute at statues of Mahatma Gandhi and B. R. Ambedkar. In Bhopal, the police did not allow the Congress to take out a rally.

In his speech, former Chief Minister and state Congress chief Kamal Nath said, "We kept democracy alive and followed the Constitution". Kamal Nath's video message was sent to all district and block party offices across the state.

In his video speech, Nath said people voted for a Congress government in 2018. While voting for Congress, people were expecting a new dawn. "We worked to fulfil your expectations and our promises," he said.

"We got only 15 months to work. Our government's work and welfare schemes exposed BJP's 15 years of false promises and attention-diversion politics. Seeing the rapid development in the state, BJP rejected the people's mandate and formed a government through deals," the former CM said.

Nath said that he was aware of the dealings undertaken by the BJP. "I had two options. Either I could have indulged in dealings and kept the government or respected democracy and the provisions of the Constitution. I chose to go with the latter and on March 20, 2020 resigned from the post of chief minister. I am extremely proud that we followed the Constitution and kept democracy alive," he said.

"Today is the day of respect for the democracy. India's freedom movement was led by Mahatma Gandhi, B. R. Ambedkar and many such tall leaders who wanted the country to be free. Congress is the only party that knows the true meaning of free India because it fought for Independence," Nath said. "Democracy will live so long as people choose their governments," he added.

While Nath was away in Delhi, the event in Bhopal was led by former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh with former Union minister Suresh Pachauri also joining the programme at the state Congress headquarters in Bhopal.

Addressing the rally, Digvijaya Singh said that Chief Minister Chouhan in his new avatar was behaving like an autocrat. Despite repeated attempts, he was incommunicado and had no time to speak to even former chief ministers, he said. "I am pained that he has no time to speak to us," he said.

Digvijaya Singh said that along with PCC chief Kamal Nath, he tried to reach out to Chouhan after the alleged murder of a block Congress president in Chhatarpur district. "From March 18, our calls were not returned. We were told that the CM will speak to us later since he is very busy at present. Maybe he is busy, but is he so busy that he has no time to speak to former CMs over the phone?" he asked.

"I want to remind Chouhan that during my tenure of ten years, not just former BJP CMs, I even spoke to their workers, I utterly condemn such behaviour coming from him," Digvijaya said.

Nath and Singh wanted to speak to Chouhan about the alleged murder of the block Congress president from Chhatarpur district, Inder Singh Parmar.

"Five years ago, Parmar's brother Bhagwat Singh was also murdered and those arrested for the heinous crime were released on bail and even today, under political protection, they are engaging in terror in Chhatarpur," Digvijaya alleged.

He said that the BJP should not think that the Congress is weak. "We will not repose till stringent action is taken against the culprits," he said.

(IPA Service)