The Bharat Jodo Yatra being taken out by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi almost completed its Kerala leg on Wednesday. The yatra will enter Karnataka through Gudalur in Tamil Nadu on Thursday afternoon.
The response Mr. Gandhi evoked in Malappuram district, especially at Perinthalmanna, Pandikkad, Wandoor and Nilambur, as his yatra entered its last leg in the State, was momentous.
He met people from different sections, from children to elders, from workers to business persons, during his yatra. “Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is not Mann Ki Baat of Narendra Modi. He is meeting people and listening to their woes directly. And he has promised to raise their issues in Parliament and Assembly,” said All India Congress Committee general secretary Jairam Ramesh.
‘A yatra for listening’
He met fishermen, ex-servicemen, farmers, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act workers, women’s organisations, business and trade representatives, environmentalists, trade union leaders, workers from public, private, and unorganised sectors, and leaders of other political parties as well. “This has been a yatra for listening, and not talking or sermonising,” said Mr. Ramesh.
He said the Congress would continue to be against all forms of communalism. “No matter majority or minority communalism, it makes no difference.” Mr. Ramesh said the Congress would continue to fight all ideologies and institutions that abuse religion for polarising society, and that misuse religion to spread prejudice, hate, bigotry and violence.
Secular fabric
“This fight is of utmost priority to preserve, protect and celebrate the secular and composite construct of our society and nationhood,” he said. Wednesday’s yatra began from Pandikkad early in the morning and reached Wandoor by 10.30 a.m. It resumed in the afternoon and reached Nilambur by 7 p.m.
Until Wednesday evening, Mr. Gandhi walked 466 km since he started the yatra from Kanyakumari on September 7. He entered Kerala on September 11 and walked an average of 22 km every day.
Mr. Ramesh said that such rallies were simultaneously being held in several States across the country. Two yatras were being organised in Gujarat. He said both the BJP and the CPI(M) were vying for supremacy in criticising the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
