NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi will be paying tributes at the memorial of former Prime Minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sunday, after wrapping up the Delhi leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra Saturday.
“We believe in Bharat Jodo,” said Congress MP Jairam Ramesh while making the announcement. Rahul’s visit to the former PM’s memorial is the first by the Gandhi family since Vajpayee passed away in 2018.
While Gandhi was initially scheduled to visit the Vajpayee memorial, along with that of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri, after the conclusion of Saturday’s yatra, the visit was later rescheduled, ostensibly because of the big crowd at the event which led to the yatra in ending late, said sources in the party.
Rahul’s visit is being seen as a political statement by the Congress and is supposed to mark a distinction between PM Modi and Vajpayee. Though both have an RSS background, Modi is seen as a hardcore Hindutva face and Vajpayee was the more moderate and liberal face of the BJP and the RSS.
The BJP, however, has called it a “photo op”.
“It’s good he is going to pay homage to Atalji but he should also learn something from Atalji, like rashtravad. He was a Swayemsevek all through his life. Rahul always abuses RSS. He should learn from Atalji’s ideology and not go for a photo op only,” BJP spokesperson K.K. Sharma told ThePrint.
Saturday’s yatra, which culminated at Red Fort, ended with addresses by Tamil superstar and politician Kamal Haasan, who joined the Yatra Saturday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Gandhi.
“Many people asked me why I’m here. I’m here as an Indian. My father was a Congressman. I have had various ideologies and started my own political party but when it comes to the country, all party lines have to blur. I blurred that line and came here,” said Haasan.
Rahul on the other hand, hit out at the BJP, saying that the party was using “Hindu-Muslim hatred” to divide the country and also saying that the government today belonged to Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.
“It is not Narendra Modi’s government. It is Ambani and Adani government. Hindu-Muslim is being done to divert attention from the real issues. Today degree holder youths are selling ‘pakoras’, he said.
Rahul also visited the Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah in Delhi during the yatra to pay his tributes.
Earlier, the Badarpur Metro Station area was a sea of heads and Congress flags even before the sun had risen, a day before Christmas. At around 6.30am Saturday, as the first rays of sunlight hit the national capital, the yatra entered the city from Haryana with Congress supporters showering rose petals on the 150-odd yatris who’ve been walking for 108 days now. President of the Congress’s Delhi unit, Anil Chaudhary, handed over the national flag to Rahul, as is the tradition when the Yatra enters a new state.
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Covid politics heightens
The yatra entered the national capital amid a political war of words between the Congress and the BJP-led Centre.
Earlier this week, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had written to Rahul, advising that Covid protocols of masking and social distancing be followed in the yatra. Else, Mandaviya said, the yatra will be cancelled.
Responding to Mandaviya’s letter, Rahul said Thursday that it was a “new idea” to stop his yatra.
Congress MP and communications in-charge, Jairam Ramesh, said Saturday that the party will follow protocols issued by the government on the basis of medical evidence.
“I will wear the mask. The PM wore a mask to Parliament yesterday but later, there was no mask on his face. We will follow all protocols issued by the government on the basis of medical evidence. BJP is doing politics on Covid and trying to defame Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he said.
‘Mohabbat ki dukaan’
In his short speech as the yatra entered Delhi, Rahul repeated a phrase he’d coined in the yatra’s previous leg in Haryana – “Main nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukaan kholne aaye hoon.”
Taking a dig at Delhi Police, Rahul said the cops were probably not having the best day. “I know you have orders from above, but you (Delhi Police) have always been nice and cordial to us. What your order is and what you’re doing is different. I thank you for that,” he said, addressing the police personnel present.
Haasan joined the yatra during the second half of Saturday. He was the second politician from Tamil Nadu to join the yatra in two days. On Friday, DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi had joined the yatra in Haryana.
For the first time since the yatra began, Rahul was accompanied by his entire family. His mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Gandhi-Vadra’s husband Robert Vadra, and her two children, Miraya and Raihan, walked in the first half of the yatra Saturday.
Senior party leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Bhupinder Hooda, Pramod Tiwari, Shaktisinh Gohil and P. Chidambaramwalked with Rahul.
The yatra had its morning break at the Jairam Brahmachari Ashram in South Delhi. Party sources said the ashram was built by a former NSUI activist who embraced asceticism and joined a Vaishnavite sect.
On Saturday, the area around the Ashram Chowk in South Delhi was dotted with boards that bore pictures of Rahul from the funerals of his father Rajiv Gandhi, and grandmother Indira Gandhi. The caption read- “He’s walking with this pain in his being”. As the yatris walked into the Ashram, state leaders could be heard ribbing each other on whose state had more crowds.
“Uttar Pradesh will be a surprise. It will have massive crowds, as opposed to everyone’s expectation. But unfortunately, that would mean that my state would have had comparatively lesser crowds,” laughed a leader from Haryana.
After the morning break, the yatra headed to central Delhi where it will cross India Gate and ITO on its way to the Red Fort where Rahul held a corner meeting and made an address.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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