HYDERABAD: A group of 13 leaders of non-BJP parties including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and three Chief Ministers on Saturday issued a joint appeal against growing incidents of hate speech and communal violence in parts of the country under the BJP-led NDA government regime, saying issues related to food, dress, faith, festivals and language were being used to polarise society.
However, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao who has been waging a war against the 'communal and divisive politics' of the BJP government at the Centre for the past few months, was not among the signatories of this joint statement. TRS leaders maintained complete silence over why Chandrashekar Rao was not part of this joint statement against the BJP.
Interestingly, in Maharashtra, ruling Shiv Sena, which is in alliance with the Congress and NCP, was also not part of this joint statement.
The other political leaders who issued the appeal include Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI general secretary D. Raja, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi
Yadav and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah.
Of these, Chandrashekar Rao already met Mamata Banerjee, Stalin, Hemant Soren, Sitaram Yechury, D. Raja, Teshwi Yadav and Sharad Pawar in the past few months in his attempts to forge an anti-BJP front before 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
