Nagpur: While addressing the crowd at the election rally of Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attacked the Congress party’s manifesto in an outrageous language and asked if it belonged to the Congress or Jaish-E-Mohammed (JeM). Fadnavis seems to have taken special umbrage at Congress’s poll promises of removing the army from Jammu and Kashmir, repealing the AFSPA and section 124A of IPC on sedition and claimed that these will create loopholes in our security system. It should be noted that these are long standing demands of rights organisations especially from areas that have significant army presence and where the sweeping powers (including a license to kill) given to it by the AFSPA have wreaked havoc. Even the Sedition law that the manifesto promises to repeal is a British era relic that is often used to curb dissent.
As the BJP tries to hold on to its 2014 electoral fortunes, it increasingly seems to be resorting to divisive and hateful language. But for a Chief Minister to compare the opposition to a terrorist organisation that is alleged to have been behind the worst terrorist attack in Kashmir is hitting a new low. But it is not surprising given that the Prime Minister himself has been pandering to majoritarianism in his election speeches. (Economic Times)
By exploiting a national tragedy and using divisive rhetoric for petty electoral gains, leaders like Devendra Fadnavis are threatening the very foundation of a democratic nation like India. Such comments only lower the prestige of a constitutional post like that of a Chief Minister and bring to question the ability of those who occupy it.