Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 24: Thousands of people joined the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra as it entered Delhi on Saturday with the entire Gandhi family marching together walking through the national capital amidst the controversy created over the union health minister asking its leader Rahul Gandhi to “stop” the march “in the interest of the nation” in view of the Covid threat looming large. Actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan also joined the Gandhis yatra on Saturday.
Several party leaders, including Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Kumari Selja and Randeep Surjewala were seen marching with Mr Gandhi. Later, former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, wearing a mask, walked with Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, her son-in-law and grandchildren walked together for a few minutes before the yatra reached Ashram Chowk in Delhi for the morning halt. This is the first time the entire Gandhi family has walked in the Bharat Jodo Yatra together and the second time Sonia Gandhi has joined the yatra. In October, she had taken part in the Congress’ mega foot march in Karnataka.
As the Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the national capital from Faridabad in Haryana, Delhi Congress Chief Anil Chaudhary welcomed Mr Gandhi, other party leaders and the yatris at Badarpur Border amid “Rahul Zindabad” chants. While addressing party workers and leaders, Rahul Gandhi reiterated that the motive of his yatra is to open a ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’ (shop of love) amid a ‘nafrat ka bazaar’ (market of hatred).
“Common man of the country is now talking about love. In every state, lakhs have joined the yatra. I have told people of RSS and BJP that we are here to open shop of love in your ‘bazar’ of hatred,” Mr Gandhi said. Mr Gandhi said the purpose of the Yatra is to showcase “real Hindustan” where people help each other. “They (BJP, RSS) spread hatred, we (Congress) spread love,” he said.
“The love that I have received from her, I am sharing the same with the country,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi with a picture of a warm hug with his mother. The Congress also shared the same picture.
The controversy over the Yatra had sparked off earlier over a letter from the health minister Mansukh Mandaviya to Rahul Gandhi asking him to strictly adhere to Covid “protocols” during Bharat Jodo Yatra or suspend it in view of the Covid cases surging in China and the threat of another Covid wave coming to India.
In his clapback, Mr Gandhi cited PM Narendra Modi’s recent poll campaign in Gujarat and the BJP’s “Jan Aakrosh Yatra” in Rajasthan. “The BJP is taking out yatras in various states. But the Health Minister is sending letter only to us,” he said. Congress had alleged that the BJP wanted to stop Mr Gandhi’s yatra as it is scared of the love Bharat Jodo Yatra has received. Nothing can prevent the Bharat Jodo Yatra from moving forward, the Congress asserted, asking the BJP to “stop playing politics in the garb of the Covid pandemic” and trying to “stall” the march,
In an apparent support to the BJP government’s move to stop the Congress Yatra, the Aam Aadmi Party also said on Saturday that the centre must immediately issue the Covid protocol which must be made applicable for all, be it a political party or a political “Yatra.”
Addressing a press conference, the AAP national spokesperson Raghav Chadha said the Centre should issue mandatory protocols to avoid the situation that the country witnessed during the first and second wave of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The country witnessed a major crisis during the last two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic due to the Centre’s failure in understanding the “seriousness” of the initial scientific indications about the spread of the virus, he charged.
“So far as I know, the Centre has not yet issued any mandatory protocols. If such protocols are issued, everyone must show respect to them and follow, be it a political party or someone taking out any yatra,” Mr Chadha told reporters when asked for his party’s stand on the row over Mandaviya’s “follow COVID-19 guidelines” letter to Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi attacked the BJP government for allegedly spreading hate using religious differences as a weapon. Addressing the rally at the Red Fort, Rahul Gandhi said, “Hindu-Muslim hatred is being spread 24×7 to divert your attention from real issues.” “I have walked 2,800 km, but did not see any hatred. When I turn on the TV, however, I see violence,” Mr Gandhi said. “The media is a friend. But it never shows the reality of what we say because of a gag order from the backstage…But this country is one, everyone wants to live in harmony,” he said.
Mr Haasan, the founder of the Makkal Needhi Maiam, said initially people came to him to say that joining the Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and walking with Mr Gandhi would be a costly political mistake. “I asked myself, this is the time the country needs me. Kamal, my inner voice said, Bharat todne ki nahi jodne ki madad karo (help unite the country, not break it),” Mr Haasan said. The actor did not speak about political alliances. His party, which contested its first election in Tamil Nadu in April 2021, had lost the electoral battle.
Congress General Secretary organisation KC Venugopal said we have received an amazing response from the people of Delhi who joined the yatra, braving the early morning chill. The yatra, which started in Kanyakumari on September 7 and will end in Kashmir, has so far covered Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
