BJP Targets Rahul Gandhi Over 1984 Riots Anniversary Rally
New Delhi, November 1: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday launched a sharp offensive against the Congress after its rally at Ramlila Maidan, taking out a march in Hari Nagar led by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The BJP said the protest reflected the anger of 1984 riot victims and the Sikh community.
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and Delhi BJP President Harsh Malhotra joined the march, which was held against what the party described as 'chaos' at the Congress event.
BJP leaders argued that the Sikh community was still mourning the killing of thousands of Sikhs in the 1984 riots. Holding a rally on November 1, they said, had deeply hurt the sentiments of the community at a time of grief.
Writing on social media platform X, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta accused Rahul Gandhi, the Congress and the 'INDI' alliance of spreading anarchy in the name of democracy. She said the country was seeing their real face and had not forgotten November 1, the date on which the horrific chapter of the massacre of Sikhs was being written on Delhi's streets in 1984.
Gupta also accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading falsehoods, discrediting the public mandate and creating an atmosphere of disorder on the streets. She said that the cost of his political frustration was being passed on to the country and the people of Delhi. She added that the Congress could not erase the stain of 1984 by invoking democracy, nor could it put Delhi's traders' livelihoods at risk out of despair over repeated public rejection.
In a further statement, she said that defeat through the public mandate could not be avenged on the nation, and that Rahul Gandhi's political failures could not be recovered from the people of Delhi.
Harsh Malhotra echoed the criticism, saying the Congress had hurt the Sikh community's feelings by organising the rally during a period of mourning. He claimed the people had completely rejected the 'Vote Chor, Gaddi Chhod' campaign led by Rahul Gandhi's Congress, communists, socialists, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the DMK, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.
He said opposition workers had also rejected their leaders' position on SIR, and that the boycott of the 'Chalo Ramlila Maidan' campaign showed SIR was not an issue. Malhotra demanded that 'Rahul Congress' apologise to the Sikh community and Delhi's trading class.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said the Congress had created unease among traders and citizens for 15 days by promising a rally of lakhs on Sunday. He said this was the party's fifth attempt in ten years to re-establish Rahul Gandhi politically, and it had failed again.
Kapoor said the BJP had warned on Saturday morning that Rahul Gandhi would not gather even 25,000 people, let alone 10 lakh. The empty Ramlila Maidan, he said, confirmed that assessment.