BJP's proposed virtual rally draws flak from RJD, Congress

The opposition in Bihar on Monday lashed out at the BJP for the proposed "virtual rally" next week, which would be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, marking commencement of the party's "digital campaign" ahead of the assembly elections. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who chose to join the battle for eyeballs by observing a 'Garib Adhikar Diwas' (rights of the poor day) on June 9, around the same time when Shah is scheduled to make his address, said the saffron party should instead seek forgiveness of the people for its "indifference" to their plight during the lockdown.

"We appeal to all people of Bihar to observe the Garib Adhikar Diwas at their homes, beating utensils as a mark of protest against the BJP government," Yadav said at a press conference here, convened shortly after the saffron party's state unit chief Sanjay Jaiswal announced Shahs programme. It was pointed out to Yadav, named by his party as its chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls later this year, that the proposed beating of utensils would seem an imitation of the Prime Minister's exhortation when he had asked people across the country to do the same on March 22 observed as a janta curfew just a couple of days before the nationwide lockdown was clamped.

"Empty utensils would serve as a metaphor of the hunger that the poor, especially migrants, have been made to endure. Clanging these would be aimed at drawing the attention of the government, which has been indifferent to their plight," he said. "If the BJP must hold a virtual rally, it should do so to seek forgiveness for its misrule and to repent," he added.

Senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra, whose party is an alliance partner of the RJD, said in a strongly worded statement, the BJP's "political move and the celebratory mood" it has displayed over completion of one year of NDA-2 government, are indicative of the party's "insensitivity. He also expressed concern over the 'unblock 1.0' that has been set in motion, saying it appeared the government has "left the people to fend for themselves in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic".