The BJP today held a rally to counter a march by top opposition leaders and termed the Constitution as the "soul" of the country, fundamental to its democratic existence.
The BJP's Maharashtra unit organised a "Tiranga Yatra" here and dubbed it as "Samvidhan Samman rally" to counter the opposition's "Save the Constitution" (Samvidhan Bachao) march held earlier in the day.
The saffron party's rally started from Chaityabhoomi and concluded at the Kamgar Stadium in Central Mumbai, covering a distance of around 2.5 km.
At the venue, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed a gathering and launched a scathing attack on non-BJP parties over their event that coincided with the Republic Day which marks the coming into force of the Constitution.
"Those who are holding 'Save the Constitution' rally are actually hypocrites. They see only holes in our Constitution which is the soul of the country and fundamental to our democratic existence," he said.
"While we are showing true respect to the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar, the opposition parties are fighting for their own existence," Fadnavis claimed.
He mocked the opposition parties and questioned the legislative strength of some of them.
"People are wise and they know their (opposition's) hypocrisy. Eighteen parties, some of them not having a single MLA or MLC, could not manage to assemble even 1,800 people," he said.
"While you can see here (at the BJP rally) a huge number of people not only from Mumbai but also other parts of Maharashtra have come on roads to show their solidarity with the Constitution. This shows our patriotism and commitment towards serving the nation," the chief minister said.
Fadnavis alleged that the opposition parties were enacting a "drama" in the name of the Constitution and trying to hide behind the statute book to mask their "failures".
"Whenever these people come to power, they take oath in the name of the Constitution and then loot the country. What they want to say? Is this so weak that it can be tweaked or broken? No. Not at all. Babasaheb Ambedkar has given us the world's most powerful Constitution," he said.
Before starting the rally, BJP leaders and workers visited Chaityabhoomi, a memorial to Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Constitution, and sought his blessings.
Fadnavis also spoke about his government's proposal to build a memorial to the Dalit icon on the Indu Mill land in Dadar.
"When these people (Congress and NCP) were in power, they offered the mill land to builders and did not bother to give the same for the Babasaheb Ambedkar's memorial.
"However, when Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) took charge, he handed over the Indu Mill land worth Rs 3,500 crore within three days to (the state government) for the memorial," he said.
Fadnavis also highlighted his government's mega farm waiver scheme announced in June last year and attacked the erstwhile Congress-NCP administration for ignoring farmers.
"You people waived farmer loans of Rs 6,000 crore in over a decade, while we waived farmer loans (till now) worth over Rs 23,000 crore (within two years of coming to power).
"Companies and investors across the globe have shown faith in Maharashtra. We have got investment of more than Rs 1 lakh crore in the last two-three years," he said.
Fadnavis, who attended the World Economic Forum at Davos, said, "Earlier, no head of a foreign country used to pay attention to Indian leaders or prime ministers.
"But ever since Modiji has started representing India at the global stage, there is a scramble among international leaders to have a photo session with him," Fadnavis said.
Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar said the opposition parties have no moral right to hold "Save the Constitution" rally.
"They should have held such a rally when slogans like 'Bharat Tere Tukde Honge' were raised or when AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi opposed the singing of Vande Mataram," Shelar said.
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