New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge laid down the political agenda of the upcoming Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, January 6. He said that the Yatra will touch 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats, and 337 assembly constituencies in what is the biggest mass outreach ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The yatra that will begin on January 14, 2024 will cover 6,700 kilometres from Manipur’s Imphal to Mumbai.
“The Yatra will raise social, economic, and political concerns of Indians,” Kharge said, while hitting out at the allegedly anti-people policies of the Narendra Modi government.
Kharge said while the Prime Minister has so much time for photo opportunities in Lakshadweep and elsewhere, he hasn’t had time to visit the conflict-ridden Manipur and give a healing message to its people. At the same time, he said the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will be a political platform for the Congress and its allies to “not only convey the party’s message to people, but also to hear their concerns”.
“The criminal bills which were passed without discussions have taken away the rights of labourers. The union government has tweaked the laws so that the working people become bonded labour and completely dependent on the whims of owners. All the protection and security guaranteed to the working people of the country before and after independence have been taken away in the new laws,” Kharge said.
“The Yatra is to raise awareness about fundamental concerns of India,” Kharge said, as he attacked the union government for silencing the opposition both in the Parliament and outside. He said that the mass suspensions of 146 MPs, even of those who remained silent or were seated in their respective benches, from both the Houses was a tactic to silence the opposition. Outside the Parliament, he said that the opposition was being silenced by the alleged misuse of central investigation agencies against opposition leaders, opposition party cadres and friends and relatives of opposition leaders.
He said that it is curious that agencies pursue cases against opposition leaders only until they are in opposition parties, but conveniently stop following the cases when some of them join the BJP. “The leaders are kalankit (tarnished) only until they are in opposition but become clean when they join the BJP ranks. BJP is running a dry clean factory,” Kharge said.
In such a scenario, the Congress had chosen to reach out to people to talk about its political concerns through the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, the Congress president said.
He said that the party has also invited INDIA parties and will hold at least 7-8 big rallies through its entire run, apart from small and big public meetings. He also appealed to civil society groups and like-minded organisations to join the yatra.
The Yatra’s main motivation is to unite the weaker sections of the society, he said, while releasing the Yatra’s slogan “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Nyay Ka Haq Milne Taq” and a short video pointing out the union government’s failed promises like doubling farmers’s income, farm laws, and two crore jobs every year. He added that concerns like the rising inequality between the rich and the poor owing to the Modi government’s alleged crony practices and frequent constitutional violations during the Modi regime will be raised aggressively during the Yatra, and appealed to the media to cover the Yatra widely to prevent any further backsliding of democracy and freedom of speech.
He said that the party has also appointed election observers in 500 Lok Sabha seats but will take a decision on the number of seats that the Congress will contest after a seat-sharing arrangement is finalised with the INDIA parties.