Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress enters Delhi tomorrow
The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Congress president Rahul Gandhi today resumed from Kerli Lala in Sohna on the third and final day of the Haryana leg as the first leg.
News reported that senior party leaders participated in the foot pilgrimage from Rajasthan into Haryana’s Nuh on Wednesday.
Those who accompanied Gandhi included former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior leaders Randeep Singh Surjewala and Kumari Selja.
PTI reports that the pilgrimage will pass through Faridabad district including Bagal Village, Bally Chowk and Gopal Garden during the day. The 3,500 km pilgrimage also entered Gurugram yesterday.
After entering Nu on Wednesday, Gandhi took aim at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), suggesting that while the Congress voices farmers and workers, another ideology benefits only a select few.
The former Congress leader slammed the ruling party over inflation and unemployment.
Days after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote to him asking him to consider suspending the procession if Covid-19 protocols could not be followed, Gandhi said on Thursday that the government was making “excuses” to stop the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“The BJP was wary of the growing power of its pan-India foot march and the ‘truth of India’, and ‘excuses’ like the Covid-19 alert are being used to stop it. “…that’s it. Their (BJP) new idea… they wrote to me saying that covid is coming and stopping the yatra. All these are excuses to stop this Yatra… They fear the reality of India,” said Rahul Gandhi.
The Kanyakumari-Kashmir Yatra, a mass communication initiative of the Congress that began on September 7, has so far visited the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
The first leg of the pilgrimage ends in Haryana on Friday and will enter the national capital tomorrow, December 24. In the second phase, it is planned to re-enter Haryana from Uttar Pradesh at Sanoli Gurd in Panipat district on January 6.
“This is BJP’s politics to defame Bharat Jodo Yatra. If there’s a protocol on a scientific basis or the views of experts,then Bharat Jodo Yatra will definitely follow it,” said Congress leader Jairam Ramesh earlier on Friday.
At a press conference in Pakhal village near Faridabad, Ramesh said, ”This whole Covid drama over the last two days has been orchestrated to defame and derail the Bharat Jodo Yatra from coming to Delhi. That’s the only objective”.
He was asked if the government was selectively picking on the yatra after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote to Gandhi to consider suspending the march if Covid protocols could not be followed.
”Any protocol based on scientific and medical advice that is uniformly implemented will be followed by the Congress party. We have always followed it,” he said.
In a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, ”We were not the party which gave solution that the Covid situation (after its outbreak in 2020) will be won in 18 days, like the Mahabharata war”. ”There was one gentleman who said that we will win the Covid war in 18 days, there was on gentleman who advised Indians to deal with the pandemic by going to their balconies and bang ‘thalis’. These were the remedies given for Covid, if you recall,” the senior Congress leader said.
Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, family members of freedom fighters and top Congress leaders are expected to join Rahul Gandhi in the Delhi leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra on Saturday, party sources said.
