Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday joined the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for “spreading hate”, both leaders said the common people of the country are being robbed systematically by the ruling regime. “A systematic design is at play to divide society and incite hate. It [hate] can only be defeated and overcome with love. Someone who loves the country can never spread hate,” said Mr. Gandhi, while addressing the public in Moradabad, a communally sensitive district in western U.P.
‘Youth facing injustice’
Flagging the question paper leak in the U.P. constable recruitment examination, the Congress leaders said the term ‘nyay’ (justice) was added to the yatra as injustice is being done to the youth today. “You [youth] work hard but your paper gets leaked and you don’t get a job. Injustice is being done to women. You are facing inflation. Loans of farmers are not waived, but loans of big industrialists are waived. Unless you bring change, the situation is not going to change,” said Ms. Vadra, who will be part of the yatra for the remainder of the Uttar Pradesh leg over the weekend through the districts of Sambhal, Amroha, Bulandshahr, Hathras, Aligarh, Agra and Fatehpur Sikri.
“Just think, whenever their [government] bulldozer runs, on whose houses does it run? Those who crushed six farmers under his jeep... did the [government] run a bulldozer on his house? The one who tortured women, had his house bulldozed?” Ms. Vadra asked the crowd. Unless common people get employment, unless paper leaks are stopped, common people and India cannot progress, she said.
Akhilesh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party (SP), a Congress partner and constituent of the Opposition INDIA bloc, will also participate in the yatra in Agra on February 25.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by Mr. Gandhi, is travelling from Manipur to Mumbai, covering 15 States, pushing for economic, social and political justice to all. The yatra entered U.P. via Chandauli on February 16 and roughly spent a week in India’s politically most crucial State that sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha. It will leave U.P. on February 25.
