Jhooth Ki Goonj posters appear in Indore ahead of Rahul Gandhi student event
Posters reading Jhooth Ki Goonj appeared in Indore before Rahul Gandhi's student interaction, sparking a row between the Congress and the BJP.
Posters bearing the slogan "Jhooth Ki Goonj" have come up at several locations in Indore ahead of a student interaction programme to be addressed by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, setting off a political dispute between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.
The Congress described the posters as a BJP tactic aimed at obstructing the event, titled "Chhatron Ki Goonj". The party's city unit president, Chintu Chouksey, said the BJP, which he accused of habitual falsehood, had put up the posters across Indore. He alleged that the ruling party had engineered every possible hurdle to disrupt preparations for Gandhi's programme, and said the event was going ahead despite these obstacles. Local Congress leaders and workers were seen taking down the posters at various spots in the city.
BJP state co-media in-charge Alok Dubey rejected the charge. He said students and young people in Indore were being pressured to attend the programme, and that they had launched the "Jhooth Ki Goonj" campaign on their own to express their anger. According to Dubey, the posters reflect student sentiment and convey the message that Gandhi speaks untruths.
The row comes a day after the Madhya Pradesh police issued a security directive stating that organisers of the Chhatron Ki Goonj event would share joint responsibility with the police for crowd control and for arrangements at the venue's entry and exit points. The directive cited the Verma Commission report on the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.
The Congress had first sought permission to hold the programme at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Indore on September 12, but was refused after civic authorities said the stadium could be allotted only for sports or government events, in line with a Madhya Pradesh High Court order. The party then shifted the programme to September 19 and applied for a site opposite Regional Park. It deposited Rs 10.08 lakh with the Indore Development Authority for a three-day temporary lease of about 12,000 square metres of land.