New Delhi: Leaders of the Janata Parivar Monday gathered in the heart of the capital to denounce the Narendra Modi government and accuse it of fomenting communal tension.
Addressing thousands of people in the Jantar Mantar area, leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) hit out at the BJP-led government.
“Why has the National Democratic Alliance government failed to fulfil its promises made before the (Lok Sabha) election?” asked JD-U leader and former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.
“Where is the black money it (NDA) promised to bring back (from abroad)?”
He accused Modi of not acting tough against right-wing Hindu groups charged with religious conversion of Christians and Muslims and said the country should not be divided on religious grounds.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and RJD’s Lalu Prasad were equally vocal.
“The BJP’s conspiracy is to engineer riots so that attention is shifted away from the government’s failures,” said Mulayam Singh, a former Uttar Pradesh chief minister.
“The Agra incident was just a beginning. They will do such things across the country,” he said, referring to the conversion of 300 Muslims families in his state.
The issue of mass conversion has sparked outrage, with opposition parties accusing Hindu groups of forcibly converting the people. Many incidents have been reported from other parts of India, the latest being from Kerala.
Mulayam Singh also criticised the Modi government for failing to bring back black money stashed abroad.
“They promised jobs to all the youth and Rs.15 lakh to everyone (from the black money they would bring back). They even asked people to open bank accounts. But where is the money?”
Lalu Prasad said Modi was attempting to cause religious divide in the country by tacitly encouraging religious conversion.
“The minorities have also fought for India’s independence and the Modi government engages in ‘ghar vapsi’ (home-coming),” he said.