The Evening Wrap: Democracy is in danger, says Opposition at mega Delhi rally

The INDIA group of Opposition parties on March 31 stood united at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan in solidarity with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren who were arrested in separate cases by the Enforcement Directorate. The bloc also laid down their 2024 general election pitch calling it a “fight to save the Constitution”. In speech after speech, the opposition leaders lamented the lack of level playing field for them in these polls, citing “coercive action” by central agencies against them and income tax notices financially crippling them. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi asserted that without EVM manipulation and other intimidatory tactics the BJP and its allies can’t cross 180 seats in the upcoming general elections. “When pressure is put on umpires and captains, players are bought off and the match is won, in cricket, it is called match-fixing. We have Lok Sabha polls before us. Who selected the umpires? Before the match started, two players were arrested... Narendra Modi is trying to do match-fixing in these polls,” Gandhi said. Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal read out a message from the jailed CM in which he promised five guarantees: 24x7 power supply, free electricity for poor, government schools and mohalla clinics in every village, multispeciality government hospital in every district and fair minimum support price for all crops following the Swaminathan report. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, likened the BJP and RSS to poison. “You have to decide if you want democracy or dictatorship... Those who support dictatorship need to be kicked out of the country. The BJP and RSS are like poison. You will die even if you taste poison,” Kharge said. The rally also served as an opportunity for many INDIA bloc participants to recommit themselves to the anti-BJP alliance. Trinamool Congress which refused to concede any seat to Congress in West Bengal asserted that it “was, is and will be part of the INDIA bloc.” The crowd roared in response to this remark made by TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’ Brien. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav regaled the crowd with a parody song from blockbuster Hindi film of actor Govinda, who recently joined Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) mocking the Modi government’s alleged failed promises. He said that the BJP’s campaign tagline “abki baar, 400 paar” indicates that they have already fixed the EVMs. Former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav commented that Uttar Pradesh knows how to warmly welcome people and also how to bid them farewell. Taking a dig at BJP, he asked, why is the ruling party which is confident of winning 400 seats scared of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and other opposition leaders. At the conclusion of the rally, on behalf of the INDIA bloc, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra read out the group’s five main demands. The opposition parties demanded that the Election Commission of India ensure a level playing field for them and stops “coercive action” against them by IT, ED and CBI. They also demanded the immediate release of Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal. The parties also directed the government to stop financially strangulating them. They urged the Supreme Court to set up a special investigation team to probe the allegations of quid pro quo, extortion and money laundering by BJP using the Electoral Bonds. Letter by advocates to the CJI is an attempt to misguide people, says lawyers union The recent letter by a group of lawyers, including senior Supreme Court advocates Harish Salve and Adish Agarwala, to the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on safeguarding the judiciary, is a direct fallout of the exposure of corruption in the apex court’s verdict on electoral bonds, the Left-leaning All India Lawyers Union (AILU) in a statement. AILU leaders, senior lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, and senior lawyer P.V. Surendranath, said the letter is only a canard against responsible lawyers and lawyers’ forums, who are consistently fighting for protection of the independence of the judiciary, and to safeguard the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. The AILU said the group of lawyers has been silent in the past, when the present regime at the Centre has been making a direct onslaught against the basic structure of the Constitution, including the independence of the judiciary. They said people holding responsible posts had attacked “judicial review” and the “basic structure” in the name of supremacy of Parliament, and had demanded the determining of a role for the executive in the selection of judges. “There has been direct intervention by the Executive Government in the matter of transfer of judges of the High Courts,” the AILU said. They added that the Narendra Modi government has been indulging in post-retirement appointments for judges “to manipulate and interfere with independence of judiciary”, and disrespected decisions of the Collegium on appointments and transfers of judges on several occasions. “Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on retirement was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Modi regime. Within six weeks of Justice Abdul Nazeer’s retirement as judge of the Supreme Court he was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh,” the AILU said. The AILU said the verdict on the electoral bonds case and the “undemocratic fact-check unit” of the Press Information Bureau had irritated the “Group” of lawyers. “The baseless allegations - canards - in the letter are not the general opinion of the advocates and legal fraternity across India at all. ‘Group of Lawyers’ do not represent advocates and legal fraternity in India. The Group’s attempt in the name of safeguarding judiciary is only a camouflage and veiled browbeat against the judiciary as it exercises the power of judicial review in demonstration of independence and accountability of the judiciary. It is also an attempt to misguide the people with a false narrative projecting themselves as saviour of judiciary,” the AILU said. PM Modi says country has only seen trailer of development The 2024 Lok Sabha election is not just for making a government but to make a ‘Viksit Bharat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on March 31, asserting that people have only seen a “trailer” of development and his government was preparing the roadmap for next five years. Addressing his first rally in Uttar Pradesh after the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule, Modi lauded Meerut as a land of “revolution and revolutionaries” that gave leaders like Chaudhary Charan Singh to the nation. “Our government has already started preparations for the third term. We are making a roadmap for the coming five years. Work is going on rapidly on what major decisions we have to take in the first 100 days. “In the last 10 years, you have seen only a trailer of development, now we have to take the country much further,” he said. He also said he has lived in poverty and that is why he “understands very well the sorrow of every poor, the pain of every poor, the suffering of every poor”. “So I made schemes to address every concern of the poor. We have not only empowered the poor, but we have also given them back their self-respect,” Modi said. What about incursions by China, Congress asks PM Modi rakes up Katchatheevu Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack on the Congress on the Katchatheevu issue, the Congress on March 31 hit back at the government, questioning Modi on “incursions” by the Chinese in the last few years, and the increased “belligerence” of “otherwise friendly neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives” under his leadership. Earlier in the day, Modi attacked the Congress over its commitment to national integrity by sharing on X (formerly Twitter) a news report published in the Times of India, which revealed details obtained through a Right to Information query on the circumstances under which then Indira Gandhi government ceded the island to Sri Lanka in 1974. The RTI query was filed by Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai. As scores of BJP leaders and supporters further amplified the news report shared by Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted a statement on X, saying that while India and the Congress had a history of leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel sacrificing their lives for the integrity of the nation, “You, PM Modi, gave a CLEAN CHIT to China, after 20 bravehearts made the supreme sacrifice in Galwan Valley.” “You have suddenly woken up to the issues of territorial integrity and national security in your 10th year of misrule. Perhaps, elections are the trigger. Your desperation is palpable,” he added. The party’s general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, also posted on X that the “real threat” to India’s integrity had been coming from China in the form of encroachments into Indian territory over the last few years. Kharge also clarified that the Katchatheevu island had been ceded in a 1974 agreement based on a “friendly gesture”, similar to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) executed between India and Bangladesh during Modi’s first term as Prime Minister. “On the eve of elections in Tamil Nadu, you are raising this sensitive issue, but your own Govt’s Attorney General, Shri Mukul Rohtagi, in 2014 told the following to the Supreme Court, ‘Katchatheevu went to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974… How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back.’ Pradhan Mantri ji, you should tell, did your Govt take ANY steps to resolve this issue and take back Katchatheevu?” he asked on X. Also, defending the ceding of the island to Sri Lanka under the circumstances of the time, Ramesh said: “In 1974, the same year that Katchatheevu became part of Sri Lanka, the Sirima Bandaranaike-Indira Gandhi Pact allowed the repatriation of 600,000 Tamil people from Sri Lanka to India. In a single move, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi secured human rights and dignity for six lakh hitherto stateless people.” Similarly, when Modi’s government brought the Bill for the LBA, the Congress had recognised the humanitarian need for it despite India losing out on over 10,000 acres in the deal, he said. Ramesh also took a dig at the way a “diversionary issue” was created in Tamil Nadu, saying: “The president of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit files an RTI query to create a diversionary issue in Tamil Nadu. While lakhs of RTI queries on pressing public issues are ignored or rejected, this one gets VVIP treatment and gets answered rapidly. The BJP’s Tamil Nadu president very conveniently ‘places’ the reply to his query in some friendly sections of the media. The Prime Minister immediately amplifies the issue. Talk of match-fixing!” In Brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo surgery on March 31 for a hernia his doctors have discovered, a statement from his office said. The Prime Minister will be fully sedated after his doctors discovered the hernia “during a routine examination”. “During this time, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin will serve as acting Prime Minister,” the statement said. Last year, the 74-year-old underwent surgery to have a pacemaker implanted. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 31 March 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Democracy is in danger, asserts Opposition at mega Delhi rally The [INDIA group of Opposition parties on March 31 stood united at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan]( in solidarity with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren who were arrested in separate cases by the Enforcement Directorate. The bloc also laid down their 2024 general election pitch calling it a “fight to save the Constitution”. In speech after speech, the opposition leaders lamented the lack of level playing field for them in these polls, citing “coercive action” by central agencies against them and income tax notices financially crippling them. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi asserted that without EVM manipulation and other intimidatory tactics the BJP and its allies can’t cross 180 seats in the upcoming general elections. “When pressure is put on umpires and captains, players are bought off and the match is won, in cricket, it is called match-fixing. We have Lok Sabha polls before us. Who selected the umpires? Before the match started, two players were arrested... Narendra Modi is trying to do match-fixing in these polls,” Gandhi said. Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal read out a message from the jailed CM in which he promised five guarantees: 24x7 power supply, free electricity for poor, government schools and mohalla clinics in every village, multispeciality government hospital in every district and fair minimum support price for all crops following the Swaminathan report. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, likened the BJP and RSS to poison. “You have to decide if you want democracy or dictatorship... Those who support dictatorship need to be kicked out of the country. The BJP and RSS are like poison. You will die even if you taste poison,” Kharge said. The rally also served as an opportunity for many INDIA bloc participants to recommit themselves to the anti-BJP alliance. Trinamool Congress which refused to concede any seat to Congress in West Bengal asserted that it “was, is and will be part of the INDIA bloc.” The crowd roared in response to this remark made by TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’ Brien. Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav regaled the crowd with a parody song from blockbuster Hindi film of actor Govinda, who recently joined Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) mocking the Modi government’s alleged failed promises. He said that the BJP’s campaign tagline “abki baar, 400 paar” indicates that they have already fixed the EVMs. Former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav commented that Uttar Pradesh knows how to warmly welcome people and also how to bid them farewell. Taking a dig at BJP, he asked, why is the ruling party which is confident of winning 400 seats scared of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and other opposition leaders. At the conclusion of the rally, on behalf of the INDIA bloc, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra read out the group’s five main demands. The opposition parties demanded that the Election Commission of India ensure a level playing field for them and stops “coercive action” against them by IT, ED and CBI. They also demanded the immediate release of Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal. The parties also directed the government to stop financially strangulating them. They urged the Supreme Court to set up a special investigation team to probe the allegations of quid pro quo, extortion and money laundering by BJP using the Electoral Bonds. Letter by advocates to the CJI is an attempt to misguide people, says lawyers union The recent letter by a group of lawyers, including senior Supreme Court advocates Harish Salve and Adish Agarwala, to the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on safeguarding the judiciary, is a [direct fallout of the exposure of corruption in the apex court’s verdict on electoral bonds]( the Left-leaning All India Lawyers Union (AILU) in a statement. AILU leaders, senior lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya, and senior lawyer P.V. Surendranath, said the letter is only a canard against responsible lawyers and lawyers’ forums, who are consistently fighting for protection of the independence of the judiciary, and to safeguard the basic structure of the Indian Constitution. The AILU said the group of lawyers has been silent in the past, when the present regime at the Centre has been making a direct onslaught against the basic structure of the Constitution, including the independence of the judiciary. They said people holding responsible posts had attacked “judicial review” and the “basic structure” in the name of supremacy of Parliament, and had demanded the determining of a role for the executive in the selection of judges. “There has been direct intervention by the Executive Government in the matter of transfer of judges of the High Courts,” the AILU said. They added that the Narendra Modi government has been indulging in post-retirement appointments for judges “to manipulate and interfere with independence of judiciary”, and disrespected decisions of the Collegium on appointments and transfers of judges on several occasions. “Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on retirement was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the Modi regime. Within six weeks of Justice Abdul Nazeer’s retirement as judge of the Supreme Court he was appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh,” the AILU said. The AILU said the verdict on the electoral bonds case and the “undemocratic fact-check unit” of the Press Information Bureau had irritated the “Group” of lawyers. “The baseless allegations - canards - in the letter are not the general opinion of the advocates and legal fraternity across India at all. ‘Group of Lawyers’ do not represent advocates and legal fraternity in India. The Group’s attempt in the name of safeguarding judiciary is only a camouflage and veiled browbeat against the judiciary as it exercises the power of judicial review in demonstration of independence and accountability of the judiciary. It is also an attempt to misguide the people with a false narrative projecting themselves as saviour of judiciary,” the AILU said. PM Modi says country has only seen trailer of development The 2024 Lok Sabha election is not just for making a government but to make a ‘Viksit Bharat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on March 31, asserting that [people have only seen a “trailer” of development]( and his government was preparing the roadmap for next five years. Addressing his first rally in Uttar Pradesh after the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule, Modi lauded Meerut as a land of “revolution and revolutionaries” that gave leaders like Chaudhary Charan Singh to the nation. “Our government has already started preparations for the third term. We are making a roadmap for the coming five years. Work is going on rapidly on what major decisions we have to take in the first 100 days. “In the last 10 years, you have seen only a trailer of development, now we have to take the country much further,” he said. He also said he has lived in poverty and that is why he “understands very well the sorrow of every poor, the pain of every poor, the suffering of every poor”. “So I made schemes to address every concern of the poor. We have not only empowered the poor, but we have also given them back their self-respect,” Modi said. What about incursions by China, Congress asks PM Modi rakes up Katchatheevu Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack on the Congress on the Katchatheevu issue, the [Congress on March 31 hit back at the government]( questioning Modi on “incursions” by the Chinese in the last few years, and the increased “belligerence” of “otherwise friendly neighbours like Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives” under his leadership. Earlier in the day, [Modi attacked the Congress over its commitment to national integrity]( by sharing on X (formerly Twitter) a news report published in the Times of India, which revealed details obtained through a Right to Information query on the circumstances under which then Indira Gandhi government ceded the island to Sri Lanka in 1974. The RTI query was filed by Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai. As scores of BJP leaders and supporters further amplified the news report shared by Modi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge posted a statement on X, saying that while India and the Congress had a history of leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel sacrificing their lives for the integrity of the nation, “You, PM Modi, gave a CLEAN CHIT to China, after 20 bravehearts made the supreme sacrifice in Galwan Valley.” “You have suddenly woken up to the issues of territorial integrity and national security in your 10th year of misrule. Perhaps, elections are the trigger. Your desperation is palpable,” he added. The party’s general secretary in-charge communications, Jairam Ramesh, also posted on X that the “real threat” to India’s integrity had been coming from China in the form of encroachments into Indian territory over the last few years. Kharge also clarified that the Katchatheevu island had been ceded in a 1974 agreement based on a “friendly gesture”, similar to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) executed between India and Bangladesh during Modi’s first term as Prime Minister. “On the eve of elections in Tamil Nadu, you are raising this sensitive issue, but your own Govt’s Attorney General, Shri Mukul Rohtagi, in 2014 told the following to the Supreme Court, ‘Katchatheevu went to Sri Lanka by an agreement in 1974… How can it be taken back today? If you want Katchatheevu back, you will have to go to war to get it back.’ Pradhan Mantri ji, you should tell, did your Govt take ANY steps to resolve this issue and take back Katchatheevu?” he asked on X. Also, defending the ceding of the island to Sri Lanka under the circumstances of the time, Ramesh said: “In 1974, the same year that Katchatheevu became part of Sri Lanka, the Sirima Bandaranaike-Indira Gandhi Pact allowed the repatriation of 600,000 Tamil people from Sri Lanka to India. In a single move, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi secured human rights and dignity for six lakh hitherto stateless people.” Similarly, when Modi’s government brought the Bill for the LBA, the Congress had recognised the humanitarian need for it despite India losing out on over 10,000 acres in the deal, he said. Ramesh also took a dig at the way a “diversionary issue” was created in Tamil Nadu, saying: “The president of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit files an RTI query to create a diversionary issue in Tamil Nadu. While lakhs of RTI queries on pressing public issues are ignored or rejected, this one gets VVIP treatment and gets answered rapidly. The BJP’s Tamil Nadu president very conveniently ‘places’ the reply to his query in some friendly sections of the media. The Prime Minister immediately amplifies the issue. Talk of match-fixing!” In Brief [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will undergo surgery on March 31 for a hernia]( his doctors have discovered, a statement from his office said. The Prime Minister will be fully sedated after his doctors discovered the hernia “during a routine examination”. “During this time, Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Minister Yariv Levin will serve as acting Prime Minister,” the statement said. 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