‘Oppn defaming democracy’: BJP slams protest against EC

NEW DELHI: The INDIA bloc is “defaming democracy” and trying to create “anarchy”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Monday while slamming the Opposition lawmakers’ protest march from Parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters over alleged irregularities in voter rolls.

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

Nearly 300 Opposition lawmakers, including Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, started marching around 11.30am, but were stopped at Sansad Marg at noon, metres away from the Parliament complex amid heavy deployment of police and security personnel. At Ipm, they were whisked away by police in buses lined up along the road and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station. All the MPs were released after 2pm. While the Opposition lashed out at ECI, the poll watchdog and the BJP condemned the Congress.

“They believe in spit and run.. this anarchy is dangerous for democracy... and have no clear issue to raise, which is why they have opted to take recourse in anarchist tendencies,” Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, calling LoP Gandhi “directionless”.

He added: “If you (Gandhi) had any faith in the Constitution, you would have filed an affidavit, but they are only interested in creating anarchy.”