New Delhi, Dec 12: Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra rolled into national capital with the 'mohabbat ki dukaan' (shop of love) in a ‘nafrat ka bazaar' (market of hatred), covering around 2,800 km of the 3,570 km Kanyakumari to Kashmir walkathon, before taking a short break ahead of New Year but only after making some bold political statements.
The yatra reached Red Fort after covering around 23 km in the capital in the evening with Rahul addressing a 'Jan Sabha' with the iconic Mughal era monument from where the prime ministers address the nation on the Independence Day as the backdrop.
Rahul was to drive to memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi as well as former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee, who belonged to his political rival BJP against which he has started the yatra, on Saturday but it has been rescheduled as the padayatra could not reach the destination on time due to “surging crowd”.
The choice of visiting Vajpayee’s samadhi, which usually the Congress leaders have avoided so far, is seen as an interesting move by Rahul, who has been projecting the yatra as one that is uniting the country against the spread of hatred by the BJP-RSS.
The yatra entered the capital in south-east Delhi Badarpur from Haryana’s Faridabad early morning and then moved towards Ashram where it had the morning halt. When the yatra resumed in the afternoon, it passed through Nizamuddin, India Gate, ITO, Daryaganj and finally touched Red Fort. In Nizamuddin, Rahul also visited the historic Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah while actor-politician Kamal Haasan joined him towards the end of the yatra.
At the Jan Sabha near Red Fort where Kamal Haasan was also present, Rahul said he has appealed to people to open ‘mohabbat ka dukan’ in ‘nafrat ka bazaar’ and now people have opened “lakhs of mohabbat ka dukan”.
Like a pick-pocket who distracts one’s attention before the act, he said, the media is being used to distract people’s attention from real issues, as it benefits its owners. “I have walked 2,800 km now and I don’t see hatred among people. But when I watch TV, I see such stories. Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Muslim…Why does the media spread hatred?...Your attention is diverted and your pocket is picked” he said.
He alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “not in control” of his government. “This is not Modi’s government. This is Ambani and Adani’s government,” he said adding, “the Prime Minister cannot control. He is being controlled.”
Rahul said he was asked by the media whether he is feeling the winter chill but he thought that they would ask this question actually to the farmers, labourers and the poor.
In the morning session, Rahul was also joined by former Congress President and his mother Sonia Gandhi as well as his sister and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, her husband Robert Vadra and their children. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge joined him at Red Fort.
Thousands of party workers and supporters joined throughout the yatra route, which adorned posters and party flags, by raising slogans ‘Bharat Jodo’ and ‘Rahul Gandhi Zindabad’.
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