Regional political outfits put up show of strength in Jind, BJP's Birender Singh attends rally

The Indian National Lok Dal had organised a Samman Diwas Samaroh at Jind to mark the birth anniversary of the former deputy PM.Akali stalwart and five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, Janata Dal U leader KC Tyagi and former Haryana CM OP Chautala attended the rally.

Several regional political outfits like the INLD, SAD and the National Conference here on Saturday put up a show of strength on the 108th birth anniversary of the late deputy PM Devi Lal and also backed the stir against the Centre's farm laws. The event saw a surprise participation of BJP leader and former Union minister Birender Singh. The Indian National Lok Dal had organised a "Samman Diwas Samaroh" at Jind to mark the birth anniversary of the former deputy PM.

Akali stalwart and five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah, Janata Dal (U) leader KC Tyagi and former Haryana CM OP Chautala attended the rally. Former PM HD Devegowda and ex-Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav could not attend the event. Addressing the gathering, Badal urged people to strengthen regional outfits for the resolution of their issues.

Pointing out that he has 70 years of political experience, Badal said governments of regional parties should be formed in states as they know the ground realities and understand people' problems.

''Those who do not know your problems, who are sitting in Delhi and never saw a village and farmers' problems, how could they solve issues,'' said the Akali stalwart. ''Unless you give strength to the regional parties, nothing will happen,'' said the five-time chief minister. Badal urged the leaders who attended the event to bring all regional parties in the country together. He urged Chautala to go to every state and bring leaders of the opposition parties on one platform. He called former deputy PM Devi Lal an institution, who sacrificed the post of the PM in the first non-Congress government and recommended VP Singh's name.

He also ridiculed the Congress in Punjab, saying four candidates for the chief minister were changed by the party high command in the past a few days, in an apparent reference to the discussions for the selection of a CM after Amarinder Singh resigned as the chief minister of the state.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdullah slammed the Centre over the three farm laws. He said the Union government is in the ''grip of industrialists and that is why they want to sacrifice farmers''. ''Today, we are seeing that farmers are dying on roads,'' he said, adding that the day will come when the government will have to bow down before the protesting farmers. Touching upon the scrapping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, he said not even a single person got job despite two years passing after the decision. He said the Centre had promised 50,000 jobs in Kashmir. He accused the Centre of ''dividing'' the country in the name of religion and also ''speaking lies''. He asked farmers to hold their agitation like Mahatma Gandhi, who forced the British to leave India.

He said the Centre has claimed that terrorism has been eliminated since the scrapping of special status of Jammu and Kashmir. ''They lie to you,'' he alleged. ''I want to say that they have weakened India,'' he said.

He stressed on making friends with the neighbouring countries and asked whether Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh were ''our friends''. Despite spending a huge sum in Afghanistan, is that nation ''our friend'', he asked.

He said Lord Ram belongs to everyone. Ram is everyone's Ram and not only to the BJP and the RSS, he stated. Former Union minister Birender Singh also praised the late Devi Lal and recalled his works for the welfare of people. He said though it has been claimed that hundreds became millionaires in the past some years, there was no ''crorepati'' among farmers, who produced more foodgrain during the time of coronavirus.

A few people have control over the country's wealth, gold, silver and diamonds, he said.

Former Haryana CM Om Prakash Chautala also supported the ongoing farmers' stir.

He claimed following the Ellenabad byelection, the present BJP-JJP coalition government in the state will ''fall'' and there will be a ''mid-term poll''. INLD's lone MLA Abhay Singh Chautala had resigned from the Ellenabad seat to protest three farm laws.

He urged people to strengthen the Indian National Lok Dal while promising employment to the youth.

In recent weeks, Chautala has been meeting several like-minded political leaders in a bid to forge a third front.

Earlier this month, he had claimed that people of the country were upset with the BJP government and asserted that a third front will soon be formed at the national level.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)