Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on March 5 offered prayers at Ujjain’s Mahakaleshwar Temple as his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra reached Madhya Pradesh’s pilgrim city.
Mr. Gandhi was accompanied by former Chief Minister and Congress veteran Kamal Nath among other party leaders.
The former Congress president’s visit, however, was met with a crowd present at the temple raising “Modi-Modi” slogans as he was entering the main entrance.
‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans
Earlier in the day, a similar incident was witnessed in Shajapur when a group of BJP workers raised slogans in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even chanted “Jai Shri Ram” in front of the Congress leader.
Mr. Gandhi, however, briefly stopped his vehicle and went to meet the BJP workers and shook hands with them.
Later in Ujjain, he said that he shook hands as it is easy to do away with hatred.
“Today, I met some BJP men. They were shouting and carrying their party flags. But when I got down the car and asked them how they were doing, they stopped shouting and started smiling. And then when I was leaving, they were giving me flying kiss,” he said, addressing the crowd.
“So, it’s not that difficult [dealing with such situations],” he said, adding that only those who get scared of life’s hardships and can’t face them carry hatred.
In Shajapur, Mr. Gandhi hit out at the Prime Minister stating Mr. Modi only wants the youth of the country to be “glued to their phones, chant Jai Shri Ram and starve to death”.
He also said that the banks were not giving loans to the youth to start businesses whereas the government was waiving loans of thousands of crores of big industrialists.
“And those who can’t pay off the loans flee the country. Be like [businessmen] Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi or Nirav Modi. Your life is all fun if you come from the 3-4% [well-to-do] population,” he added.
“A common Indian youth watches reels for six to seven hours in a day on a phone made by the Chinese youth. I want to see a day come when a Chinese youth watches reels on a phone made in Madhya Pradesh. But Modi ji does not want this. He wants that you use mobile phones all day long, chant Jai Shri Ram and starve to death,” said Mr. Gandhi.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav took a swipe at Mr. Gandhi’s yatra saying that the party, which did unnyay (injustice) throughout its tenure in power is taking out a nyay yatra (march for justice).
“The motive with which he is taking out the march will never be fulfilled. Because when the party which has done injustice throughout their time in power takes out a march for justice, people raise questions,” the Chief Minister said while speaking to reporters.
