PoliticsCongress
'Asking questions is not anarchy': Gehlot rejects BJP's Bangladesh comparison
The former Rajasthan chief minister said the 12 October march led by Rahul Gandhi was peaceful and recalled that the Congress accepted the 2014 verdict after the Anna Hazare and Ramdev agitations.
Key points
- Ashok Gehlot said questioning the government is the people's right, not anarchy.
- He rejected BJP claims that the opposition wants Bangladesh-style unrest.
- Gehlot called the 12 October march disciplined and peaceful.
Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday hit back at BJP leaders who have likened the opposition’s protests to the unrest in Bangladesh, saying that asking questions of a government is a citizen’s right.
“Asking questions in a democracy is not anarchy, it is the right of the people,” the Congress leader said in a statement issued in Jaipur.
Gehlot said senior BJP leaders were now claiming that the opposition wanted to change the government through Bangladesh-style chaos and agitation. “The BJP should tell us where it saw violence in this movement being led by Rahul Gandhi,” he said.
He described the 12 October march in Delhi as disciplined, peaceful and spirited, saying it drew leaders and workers of the INDIA bloc parties, social activists, ordinary citizens and members of “Gen-Z”.
Seeking a change of government through elections had always been part of Indian politics, he said, and demanding it was neither a crime nor a conspiracy.
Gehlot recalled the agitations before 2014, from Anna Hazare’s campaign for a Lokpal and Baba Ramdev’s movement on black money to the street protests over the 2G and coal allocation cases. “In 2014 the Congress lost the election and we respected the mandate,” he said, adding that his party had never branded democratic protests as anti-national conspiracies.
“The more the BJP tries to suppress this voice, the louder it will become,” he said.