By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 12 Mar: State Congress President Karan Mahara held a press conference at the Congress Headquarters here, today, where he accused the ruling BJP of massive corruption and dictatorial tendencies. Mahara claimed that BJP had indulged in massive corruption through Electoral Bonds and that it had tried its best to hide the information from public about the details. The PCC Chief also claimed that the Government had implemented the CAA with an aim to create religious polarisation in Lok Sabha elections and added that the BJP deliberately wanted to avoid a caste census.
Mahara claimed that the BJP and the RSS have not fully accepted the Constitution till date. They continuously question the policy on reservation as the BJP and the RSS want to snatch away the rights of Dalits, tribals and backward classes. This is a very serious and worrying thing for the country, he insisted. Mahara said that Narendra Modi’s silence on a BJP MP’s statement of ‘changing the Constitution’ is dangerous. He said that now the election is between two ideologies! The election is between those who uphold the constitution and believe in social justice and secularism, uphold the civil rights for the poor and the freedom of speech and those who wish to change the constitution, believe in exploitation, communalism, crushing freedom of silence and believe in hate against love and in homogeneity against diversity and in injustice against justice.
Karan Mahara also claimed that the desire to change the Constitution means desire to push the country towards slavery. The decision about the future of the coming generations is now in the people’s hands. The statement of the BJP MP that he needs 400 seats to change the Constitution is a public declaration of the hidden intentions of Narendra Modi and the ‘Sangh Parivar’. He said that the ultimate goal of Narendra Modi and BJP is to destroy Baba Saheb’s Constitution. They hate justice, equality, civil rights and democracy. By dividing the society, enslaving the media, curbing the freedom of expression and crippling independent institutions, they want to turn India’s great democracy into a narrow dictatorship by conspiring to eliminate the opposition.
Mahara claimed that the Congress will not let these conspiracies succeed and will continue to fight for the democratic rights guaranteed by the Constitution for ever. The PCC Chief said that in the list of 39 candidates of the Congress Party for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, 61 percent are from Scheduled Castes/Tribes/Other Backward Classes and minorities. 31 percent are youth below 50 years of age and 52 percent are below 60 years of age.
Speaking on caste census, Karan Mahara said that the caste census conducted in Bihar revealed that 88 percent of the poor population comes from Dalit, tribal, backward and minority communities. The figures from Bihar are just a small glimpse of the real picture of the country. Congress Party will take two historic steps if it comes to power. Caste census, economic mapping, on the basis of which, the Congress will do away with the limit of 50 percent reservation quota. The aim of Congress is that everyone should get participation in the institutions of the country. Now everything is being handed over to private hands.
Mahara said that electoral bonds are a big scam and the Congress party welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision not to give additional time to SBI to make public the information about electoral bonds. The Modi government at the Centre has made every possible effort to cover up its wrongdoings, but now the truth is about to be exposed. This is the first link in the expose of corruption, scams and dealings of Modi government. He claimed that the SBI had sought time to publish electoral bonds under pressure from the BJP government.
Mahara also demanded that after exposing the corruption, scams and transactions of the Central Government, the court should also direct investigation into which contracts the selected capitalists were given against the donations they made to the BJP.
He said that CAA bill was passed by the BJP government four and a half years ago, but it was implemented within a gap of four and a half years purely for electoral gains and to effect the religious polarisation before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.