Delhi Traders Warn of Heavy Losses Ahead of Diwali Amid Protests

Delhi's traders are warning of heavy losses ahead of Diwali as protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar continue in the capital. Business leaders and BJP figures say the demonstrations are affecting markets, daily earnings and the wider economy, and they have called on the administration to act.

BJP leader Jai Bhagwan Goyal and Nand Kishore Agarwal of the Delhi Agroha Vikas Sangathan have jointly criticised the protests. Both leaders said the disruption was hurting markets and traders, and both appealed to the administration to intervene.

At a major dharna held near Jantar Mantar on Sunday, Goyal backed the Chief Election Commissioner, saying his actions had been taken in the national interest. He said Kumar had played a central role in the trust constituted for the Ram Janmabhoomi temple and had been prominent in the removal of Article 370. Goyal also claimed that the removal of lakhs of Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators from the voter list had forced them to leave India.

Goyal accused the opposition of trying to create anarchy by targeting Kumar. He said the opposition wanted to bring about conditions similar to those in Nepal, Bangladesh and France. According to him, traders, farmers, labourers, women and children had gathered at the protest, in the company of saints. After the dharna, the group intended to march to Rahul Gandhi's residence and hand over a memorandum to the President.

He further argued that people who openly talk of regime change and want to remove an elected government by force had revealed their true intentions. He called for sedition cases against those he described as anti-national and said citizens would not tolerate the disregard of the Constitution, the Supreme Court and Parliament.

Goyal stressed the importance of Diwali, which falls on November 8, describing it as the biggest festival for Hindus and Sanatanis. He said traders and labourers typically earn enough during this period to last them around six months. This year, he said, business had been brought to a standstill by the protests. He added that thousands were expected at a rally at Ramlila Maidan on November 1, and demanded that such rallies be stopped and that permissions not be granted for events that could cause disorder or harm livelihoods and religious sentiments.

Agarwal said that the entire business community had gathered at the protest, with traders from the NCR region, especially Agra, Bulandshahr, Saharanpur, Noida, Ghaziabad and Delhi, as well as Rajasthan and Haryana. He said women from the community were also present. He said the purpose of the protest was to show that the trading community must rise against forces that he believes are weakening the economy and blocking development.

Agarwal said the opposition was trying to bring about a regime change and a narrative change through the controversy over Kumar. He said the media, Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Election Commission were pillars of democracy, and that efforts to damage or destroy them were not in the interest of the nation, society or traders.

He said newspapers had been reporting losses of thousands of crores of rupees. He cited a survey that placed Diwali business at one lakh crore rupees. If the festival was disrupted, he said, the losses would be enormous. Shopping starts a month in advance, and the clothing trade had suffered badly. He said losses of thousands of crores, ten thousand crores or twenty thousand crores had certainly occurred.

Agarwal warned that when trade is disrupted, the economy inevitably suffers. Traders employ many people, he said, and without profits they would find it difficult to keep workers employed. For many traders, Diwali is the real season of the year, and losses during this time could leave small traders struggling to recover.

In response to the proposed protest led by Rahul Gandhi, Agarwal said that Gandhi had lost more than a hundred elections and was now trying to change the narrative by spreading unrest, which he said was not in the national interest.