A prayer for Vajpayee at rally to oust Modi
It was a gathering of Opposition leaders keen to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but most of them had a prayer on their lips for another BJP veteran, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was on life support at the AIIMS in New Delhi.
“An illustrious son of India is set to depart, I pray to God for his peace,” former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah said addressing a function 'Save Composite Culture' organised by Sharad Yadav on Thursday.
Abdullah recalled an encounter between the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Vajpayee, who was making a mark for himself in the second Lok Sabha with his oratorical skills, in 1957.
“When Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke in the Lok Sabha for the first time, Nehru went across to him and told him you will be the prime minister one day,” Abdullah told the gathering that included former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury among others.
Rahul, in his brief address, also reminded the audience that Vajpayee was in the hospital and urged them to pray for his well being.
The refrain of the leaders of JMM, RJD, JD(S), RLD, SP, CPI, CPM, Trinamool, DMK and NCP who attended the function, was that the Constitution was facing a grave threat under the Modi government.
“If we have to protect the Constitution, we have to overthrow this Modi government,” Babulal Marandi, former Jharkhand chief minister and leader of the JVM(P) said.
Former Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra, who recently quit the BJP to join Trinamool Congress, said there was a need to shrug off the atmosphere of despair. “I was associated with the other party. I could not digest what I saw there,” Mitra said of his time in the BJP.
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