Chalo Delhi Rally Could Hit Traders Hard, Nadda Warns
A day after the INDIA bloc's large rally at Ramlila Maidan, Union Minister J.P. Nadda has said the event would cause serious damage to Delhi's traders and small businesses during the festive season. Speaking on November 1, he accused Rahul Gandhi and his allies of pursuing a politics that threatens public order, economic stability and the sentiments of the Sikh community.
Nadda described the rally as a deliberate attempt to create confusion in the name of democracy. He said the event was being staged to destabilise an elected government, and called it a calculated plot rather than a genuine democratic exercise. He added that voters had repeatedly rejected the same leaders who were now leading the protest.
He outlined what he termed a four-stage playbook used by Rahul Gandhi. The first stage, he said, was to spread lies and rumours. The second was to generate chaos and disorder on the streets. The third was to harm the national economy, and the fourth was to attempt to topple an elected government under pressure from foreign interests. Nadda alleged that the rally reflected all four stages at once.
The minister also linked the rally to the anniversary of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He said Congress workers had carried out a massacre of innocent Sikhs on November 1 that year, leaving thousands of families homeless and many women widowed. He noted that Delhi's Widows Colony remains a painful reminder of the violence, and said the Gandhi family had never offered a heartfelt apology for it. In his view, holding a political rally on this date was an insult to the victims.
Nadda's sharpest criticism was reserved for the economic impact on shopkeepers. He said Dhanteras, Diwali and Chhath Puja were approaching, and that small traders, hawkers and roadside vendors depended on this season to earn their annual income. Any disruption, he said, would endanger their livelihoods and the ability of families to meet household needs.
He cited a letter from the Chamber of Trade and Industry (CTI), which had written separately to Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee. The chamber had requested that large political programmes not be held in Delhi during the festive season. According to Nadda, previous protests had caused losses of around Rs 3,000 crore to Delhi's traders, and the current rally could cause losses exceeding Rs 10,000 crore.
Nadda said that markets such as Chandni Chowk, Sadar Bazar, Khari Baoli, Karol Bagh and across central Delhi employ large numbers of small traders who would bear the brunt of the disruption. He ended his remarks by warning that the public would hold Rahul Gandhi accountable for the economic and emotional toll, and predicted that the rally would become the final nail in the coffin of Congress's political decline.