The Bharatiya Janata Party’s planned “Save Democracy, Remove Anarchy” march through Delhi’s Chandni Chowk on Wednesday has intensified concerns over traffic disruption and festive-season business in one of the capital’s busiest commercial districts.
The march was scheduled to begin at 2 pm from the Red Fort and proceed to Town Hall. BJP national president Nitin Nabin was expected to lead the programme, with Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra, several Members of Parliament and other central leaders likely to participate. The BJP said more than 5,000 workers could join the march.
The programme has been announced ahead of a Congress rally proposed at Ramlila Maidan on November 1. Traders have opposed that rally, saying a large political gathering near major wholesale markets could affect traffic and shopping during the run-up to Diwali. Business organisations cited in the report estimated that nearly Rs 10,000 crore in trade could be affected, although the report did not provide an independent assessment of that estimate.
The BJP has defended its march as a peaceful and constitutional programme. Harsh Malhotra said the party was exercising its democratic right and accused opponents of objecting to a two-hour symbolic march while previously causing disruption in Delhi in the name of different protests. The BJP has framed the event as a response to what it calls disorder and disruption affecting traders and residents.
The Congress has challenged that position, arguing that the BJP’s own march could affect business in Chandni Chowk during the festive season. Rahul Sharma, chairman of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee’s communications and media department and a former municipal candidate from the Chandni Chowk ward, questioned why BJP leaders were linking the Congress rally to trader losses while not expressing similar concern about their own programme.
Sharma said Chandni Chowk receives large numbers of shoppers during the festival period and that any major political event in the area could affect traffic and commercial activity. He argued that concern for traders should apply to all public programmes, rather than only when a party is opposing an event organised by its political rival.
The dispute has also drawn responses from trader and street-vendor organisations. Business groups have written to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, asking that the proposed rally be postponed or shifted from Ramlila Maidan to Burari or Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. They said uncertainty over the rally had already affected the shopping environment.
Street-vendor organisations have supported the traders’ concerns, saying disruption during the festive period could affect daily earnings. The competing programmes have placed Chandni Chowk’s central urban problem in focus: large public events can use important city spaces, but traffic restrictions and crowd movement can also affect the traders, workers and shoppers who depend on those spaces. The immediate next steps will depend on the route management for the BJP march and the final decision on the Congress rally’s venue and schedule.
