After MP, Bharat Jodo Yatra to enter Rajasthan
| Date :05-Dec-2022 |
Senior Special
Correspondent
On the last day of Bharat Jodo Yatra’s Madhya Pradesh leg, before it entered Rajasthan, senior party leaders described the march as a ‘landmark occasion’. Most of them cited Yatra much needed as negative politics was being practised in the country and real issues of people were not being discussed.
Leader of Opposition Govind Singh said, “BJP was mocking the Yatra. They say that Congress is a party of old age people. An attempt was made to sabotage our journey. Tried to accuse Rahul that he is anti-Hindu. But in fact he respects all religions, earlier those who were spreading fear among Congress workers are themselves afraid of this foot march.” Congress leader Suresh Pachauri said that there should be unity in the country, there should be no separatism. Transformational moment for Indian politics. He said main aim of Bharat Jodo Yatra is to save the Constitution and culture of the country.
Going a step ahead, Madhya Pradesh State Congress President Kamal Nath asked BJP leaders, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to have a discourse on religion and spirituality with Rahul Gandhi, claiming it will prove he has more knowledge about these subjects than them.
Kamal Nath said it is a possibility that Gandhi may embark on another yatra from ‘east to west’ in the country.
Rahul Gandhi started the Yatra from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu as a mass-contact initiative on September 7. The foot march will reach Jammu and Kashmir by the end of next month and culminate there.
During the yatra in Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi had visited famous Lord Mahakal Temple in Ujjain and also offered prayers at Omkareshwar Temple in Khandwa district. The Yatra entered Hindi-speaking belt for the first time and got huge response from people, the State Congress chief claimed. Congress workers from far off places, including Rewa and Sidhi, located about 700 kms away from here, came to join the Yatra and that proved its success, he said, adding that the foot march got a huge response from people in MP, including women and children.
The BJP used to say the Yatra would end in Kerala itself, but it is getting a huge response everywhere and people are coming on their own to shower their love on Gandhi, Kamal Nath said.
“Even those shouting Modi-Modi (in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi) got silenced with the kind of response the Yatra got in Madhya Pradesh,” Nath said. During the Yatra, Gandhi interacted with farmers, small industrialists, shop owners, women, differently-abled persons, weavers, tribals, Dalits, sanitation workers, among others. Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi and Kamal Nath paid floral tributes to tribal icon and freedom fighter Tantya Bheel on the occasion of his death anniversary, a Congress spokesman said. The Yatra covered a distance of 380 km in the politically crucial Malwa-Nimar region of western Madhya Pradesh before entering Rajasthan this evening, according to a programme announced by the Congress party. The march led by Gandhi entered Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district from neighbouring Maharashtra on November 23 and now all set ready to enter Rajasthan, where party is witnessing factionalism at its peak.