BJP accuses Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal of 'competition of anarchy'

What happened

The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal of waging a "competition of anarchy" to destabilise the country following repeated electoral defeats.

Speaking at party headquarters in New Delhi, BJP leaders launched a scathing attack on the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over demonstrations targeting Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and recent friction over language politics.

BJP president Nitin Nabin claimed that Rahul Gandhi’s INDIA alliance and the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)—which the BJP described as an AAP proxy—were attempting to foment unrest on the streets at the behest of foreign powers. Nabin warned that the government would deal firmly with any attempts to disrupt peace, whether orchestrated from within India or abroad.

Protests over the Chief Election Commissioner

The verbal broadsides follow a major security crackdown in the capital on Saturday, where police deployed heavily and detained several opposition leaders during CJP-led demonstrations calling for the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

Among those detained were AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, CPI(M) leader MA Baby, former Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, MP John Brittas, and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alongside several Trinamool Congress MPs.

In response, Rahul Gandhi announced that the INDIA alliance would return to the streets on Monday, 12 October. Writing on X, Gandhi accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s Delhi Police and RSS-BJP workers of using violence against women and student protesters. Gandhi referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "Mogambo" and said the opposition would meet the Chief Justice of India to seek accountability.

Arvind Kejriwal also hit out at the Prime Minister in a video post, alleging that police mistreated female demonstrators, lawyers, and journalists, and comparing the crackdown to authoritarian regimes.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee filed a police complaint against Kejriwal and AAP leaders. Committee president Harmeet Singh Kalka accused AAP workers of entering Gurudwara Bangla Sahib posing as protesters to raise political slogans and unfurl banners, though he clarified that police personnel did not enter the main sanctum.

Political reaction and language row

BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said both Gandhi and Kejriwal were making excuses for their failure at the ballot box. Swaraj also targeted Gandhi over the dismissal of Congress MP and Jawaharlal Nehru University professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam following internal sexual harassment inquiries, questioning the Congress leadership’s silence on the matter.

Former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the opposition’s shift to street protests reflected frustration after voters rejected them in recent elections. He defended the Election Commission’s special intensive revision of electoral rolls, saying it aimed to remove duplicate and deceased voters.

Separately, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi rejected claims made by Rahul Gandhi in Chennai that the Centre was attempting to suppress Tamil culture and force Hindi imposition. Trivedi pointed to the government’s deployment of artificial intelligence tools for real-time translation in Parliament and at events such as the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam as evidence of respect for regional languages.