GuwahatiJoint opposition candidate for Presidential Election 2022 Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday said Indian democracy is in grave danger, and the ruling party is destroying every institution of democratic governance. Sinha said government agencies like the ED, CBI, Income Tax Department and even the governor’s office are being weaponized to bring down opposition leaders, engineer defections in opposition parties and bring down state governments.
Addressing a meeting of Congress and other opposition MLAs and MPs in Guwahati, he said, “Never before has the Republic of India faced multiple threats to the Constitution at once.”
Contrary to speculation that Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) would not support Sinha, party leaders met him and assured him of their support in the presidential election. The AIUDF has 15 MLAs in the 126-member Assam Assembly and the party supremo (Ajmal) is the lone Lok Sabha member.
Sinha further said that the economy is mismanaged.
“The biggest fall in the Indian rupee against the US dollar during the tenure of the current Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has gone from 58.44 in 2014 to 79.63 on Tuesday. The unprecedented price hike has hit the common people badly. Here is an example In 2014 the cost of a LPG cylinder was Rs 410. Today in Guwahati it is Rs 1,129 – an increase of almost 300 per cent. Record unemployment, especially in the Northeast, has created a bleak future for our youth.”
Sinha said that in order to win the elections, the ruling party has hatched an evil conspiracy to communally polarize India’s multi-religious society.
“We have seen this in Assam also. It will have dangerous consequences not only for social peace but also for the unity and integrity of the country. The ruling government’s agenda of One Nation, One Party, One Ruler is to convert democratic India to communist Making an imitator of China. This must be stopped,” he insisted.
Sinha said, “I have a lot of personal respect for Draupadi Murmu. However, I have repeatedly emphasized that this election is not about individuals and their identities, it is about ideologies. It is about their commitments to the Constitution.”
“Should India have a silent president? Should India have a rubber-stamp president?” Sinha asked and declared: “I will act as the impartial custodian of the Constitution. If the government deviates from the principles of the Constitution, I will exercise my powers without any fear or favour.”
He also said that Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray was forced to announce that he would support the NDA candidate. Sinha said that as a common opposition candidate, he has so far visited Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab.
He said, “I am sorry that due to paucity of time I am not able to visit other states of Northeast. The election of the President of India is being held under very difficult circumstances.”