From a modest 45 feet by 45 feet white pandal erected by the roadside opposite the Rajghat, the Bharatiya Janata Party conducted its 24-hour-long “satyagrah against corruption, black money and dictatorship” and declared its intent to take to its “logical conclusion” the fight started by rights activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
The protest ended on Monday evening with the entire BJP leadership going to the Rajghat and paying floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at his Samadhi.
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Addressing the gathering at the fag end of the sit-in, BJP president Nitin Gadkari said the satyagrah which the party launched on Sunday evening — after the brutal crackdown by the UPA government on the fast by Baba Ramdev and his supporters on the Ramlila Grounds — was just the beginning of a long-drawn battle.
Speaking in the presence of senior leaders L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar, he said he was pained by the manner in which women, children, elderly and unarmed disciples of the yoga guru were beaten up by the police in the middle of the night. “In a democracy, there is no place for violence. More so, the activists here were not even raising negative slogans, let alone being armed or violent.”
A few days before, four Union Ministers had gone to meet Baba Ramdev, prompting people to quip that this kind of treatment was not even meted out to U.S. President Barack Obama on his visit to India. And early on Sunday morning, the Baba was running for his life. “Baba told me that there was an attempt to kill him, and his clothes were pulled as he tried to get away. This is why he had to take some clothing from some women to escape. His 65-year-old secretary was also beaten up by the police, and he suffered fractures in both legs. Is this how the Congress government would treat people who raise their voice against corruption?”
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Like many other leaders before him, Mr. Gadkari put the blame for the police action on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the first family of the Congress — the Gandhis. He also took a dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi's Italian roots, saying “crores of Indians sacrificed their lives to win freedom for the country, and it was not because of some work done by [Ms.] Sonia in Italy.”
At a time when many farmers committed suicide, the government was dillydallying on bringing back the black money from abroad and was also not revealing the names of the accountholders despite the Supreme Court's directions, Mr. Gadkari said. The U.S., Germany and even smaller nations such as the Philippines and Peru changed laws and took control of their funds stashed abroad. “If India were to bring back the black money, every Indian would be richer by Rs.1.85 lakh, and this money can be used for development activities.”
A number of party leaders spoke during the day. In between, patriotic songs were played to keep the mood of activists up in the sweltering heat.