From the Urdu Press: ‘INDIA should carry Delhi rally unity to electoral battle’, ‘Sitharaman poll cop-out raises questions’

Summer heat may have just started to build up across the country, but the Lok Sabha poll fray is already on the boil. With the INDIA camp now accusing the BJP dispensation of “match-fixing” in the polls by “weaponising” the Central agencies against them, the faultlines between the two sides have deepened. The Urdu dailies captured this flare-up marking the start of a fraught campaign, ensuring saturation coverage of the Opposition alliance’s Ramlila Maidan rally, whose theme song was “Save democracy, Save the Constitution”.

Highlighting the INDIA bloc’s rally held at Delhi’s historic Ramlila Maidan, the Hyderabad-based Siasat says it was a mega show of strength featuring top Opposition leaders from across the country, which sought to “send out a clear message that despite all manoeuvrings by the government and its cheerleaders, the INDIA bloc is united and stable”.

The daily notes that the spotlight was on the wives of jailed Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and jailed ex-Jharkhand CM and JMM leader Hemant Soren, Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren, at the rally. “The reality is that democracy is in peril in the country, which must be saved. The country’s most fundamental principle – unity in diversity – is being subverted. Those with divergent views and thoughts are targeted,with all attempts being mounted to impose homogeneous politics and ideology on the people,” the editorial says. “Any dissent against the government is dubbed a crime. Various agencies swing into action against anyone standing in opposition to the government, with the sycophant media joining in to whip up sentiments maligning them. They are then slapped with cases and sent to jail. Once political differences were respected, today