Protest against government over conversions, unfulfilled promises

Thousands of people from different parts of the country thronged the national capital Monday protesting against the central government over various issues, prominent being religious conversion and the "government not acting on its promises".

The protesters, mostly from the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, gathered at Jantar Mantar and Parliament street and accused the government of "forgetting its promises and indulging in religious conversion and other divisive policies".

Speaking to IANS, some of them said the Modi government, which came to power on the promises of development and 'sab ka saath, sab ka vikas' (development for all by keeping everybody together), has been ignoring all its promises and "indulging in anti-nation activities".

Expressing concern over controversial statements being issued one after the other by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and others affiliated to the BJP, Itrat Ali of Rampur in UP wondered "who actually was governing the country - the BJP or the RSS".

He said the BJP government must address the issues the country was facing and should not indulge in acts like religious conversions.

"India is a free country and its people are also free citizens, they themselves would make choices of their faith...," he said.

Ashok Kumar Yadav, who had come from Gorakhpur, said: "Promises made by Modiji have been washed away as the government was busy doing something else and not what they had promised".

"Religious conversion is a serious issue and government should leave it to the people to decide which faith they want to follow and as India is a secular country no particular faith or belief could be imposed on anybody," he said.

Jalaluddin and Bhavnath, also from Gorakhpur, echoed the same sentiments urging the government to deliver on its promises.

Pooranmal, Surajpal Rana and K.K. Khan, all from Aligarh, expressed their unhappiness that the "government was creating problems by raising issue of religious conversion".

"They are misleading the country and have forgotten what all they had promised while asking for votes in summer this year," Khan told IANS.

"It's a country for all and the government must stop playing games with people by indulging in all these activities," he said.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar of the JD-U and Azam Khan of the Samajwadi Party addressed the people questioning why the NDA government has failed to fulfil its promises made before the election.

"Where is the black money that it promised to bring back?" they asked.

The leaders also accused the government of playing divisive politics by indulging in religious conversion.

A large number of local leaders, members and supporters of Janata Parivar - Samajwadi Party, Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) - had also gathered in central Delhi disrupting the traffic.