When Lalu, Nitish, Mulayam braved the Delhi cold to attack Modi

Addressing hundreds in the Jantar Mantar area at the Mahadharna, senior leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Indian National Lok Dal, the Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular) lashed out at the BJP-led government.

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When Lalu, Nitish, Mulayam braved the Delhi cold to attack Modi
Lalu, Mulayam, Nitish

Lalu, Mulayam, Nitish
Lalu, Mulayam, Nitish

Leaders of a loosely-constituted Janata Parivar gathered in the heart of New Delhi on Monday - the coldest day in the national capital in five years - to denounce the Narendra Modi government and accuse it of fomenting communal tensions and backtracking on its promises on black money.

Addressing hundreds in the Jantar Mantar area at the Mahadharna, senior leaders of the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Indian National Lok Dal, the Janata Dal (United) and the Janata Dal (Secular) lashed out at the BJP-led government.

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RJD supremo Lalu Prasad alleged that Modi was attempting to cause religious divide in the country by tacitly encouraging religious conversions. "Kaun mai ka laal hai jo iss desh se Musalmanon ko baahar kar de (I dare anybody to drive the Muslims out of this country)," he said. "The Modi government is trying to divide the nation on religious grounds," Lalu said.

"Why did you make false promises on black money issue to the people of this nation? You promised good days and employment, what happened to those promises?" he said in a speech animated by jibes on Modi's achche din promises.

"Why has the NDA government failed to fulfil its promises made before the (Lok Sabha) election?" asked JD(U) leader and former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar. "Where is the black money it promised to bring back (from abroad)?" he asked.

Nitish accused Modi of not acting tough against rightwing Hindu groups charged with religious conversions of Christians and Muslims and said the country should not be divided on religious grounds.

Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad. Photo: PTI
Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad. Photo: PTI

Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Lalu Prasad were equally vocal. "The BJP's conspiracy is to engineer riots so that attention is shifted away from the government's failures," thundered Mulayam Singh Yadav, a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh.

"They promised jobs to all the youth and Rs 15 lakh to everyone (from the black money they would bring back). They even asked people to open bank accounts. But where is the money?" Mulayam asked.

What is the Janata Parivar?

Sources said that while the grand merger of the former constituents could take time, the beginning would be made with the merger of Lalu Prasad's RJD and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), the process for which will kick-start soon after the Monday moorings. Noting that a united fight by Janata Parivar was needed to challenge the BJP, Prasad had a few days back said, "It is a permanent alliance. We have been missing it for long. Now it has been cemented".

"Elections are scheduled in Bihar next year and the urgency to put up a united fight against a resurgent BJP is more there than in Uttar Pradesh or Karnataka, where SP and Janata Dal (Secular) may not be in a hurry," said a senior JD(U) leader who declined to be identified. Assembly election will be held in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav. Photo: PTI
Mulayam Singh, Lalu Prasad and Sharad Yadav. Photo: PTI

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After facing a complete rout at the hands of the BJP-led alliance in Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, JDU-RJD and Congress contested the Assembly bye-elections held a few months back recovering lost ground to a large extent. JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, a prime mover behind the unity moves, said on Saturday that the December 22 'Mahadharna' in New Delhi would be the "first solid step" for merger but no timeline could be fixed for it.

The demonstration on Monday came after SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav hosted a lunch last month for leaders of five political parties - Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Indian National Lok Dal, SJP and Rashtriya Janata Dal - at his residence in New Delhi, which was attended by Sharad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda, INLD's Dushyant Chautala and SJP's Kamal Morarka.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Raj Lakshmi is getting married to SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's grandson and Lok Sabha member Tej Pratap Yadav, which also gives a personal touch to the political alliance.