The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra will finish on January 30 in Srinagar. (Report)
Srinagar:
Rahul Gandhi’s Burberry T-shirt and his scraggly beard, VD Savarkar and north India’s chilling winters, the Kathua rape and Covid. Because the curtains fall, the Bharat Jodo Yatra replays in a patchwork of problems private and the brazenly political with controversies aplenty to verify the highlight seldom wavered.
The Kanyakumari to Kashmir yatra began from the southern tip of the rustic on September 7 and ends on January 30 in Srinagar, some 145 days and three,500 km later. The cross-country foot march stayed within the information virtually all over, most commonly for the barbs between the BJP and the Congress and infrequently for different causes, together with infighting within the opposition birthday celebration.
It began right through the primary leg in Tamil Nadu with the BJP attacking Gandhi for dressed in a Burberry T-shirt allegedly value Rs 41,000. The Congress hit again again with a “Rs 10 lakh go well with” and “Rs 1.5 lakh glasses” barb directed at High Minister Narendra Modi.
It was once only the start.
Because the Gandhi-led yatra persevered so did the sparring – on social media platforms, TV debates and at the streets.
All through the early days of the yatra, the grand outdated birthday celebration, as an example, tweeted an image of khaki shorts, ceaselessly related to individuals of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, on fireplace. This brought on a backlash from the BJP, which accused the Congress of instigating violence.
And the BJP, in Tamil Nadu, accused the Congress of being anti-Hindu over Gandhi’s assembly with a debatable Christian priest.
In Kerala, the Congress was once left red-faced when a photograph of Hindutva ideologue V D Savarkar seemed on a marketing campaign poster close to Kochi. The Ernakulam District Congress Committee, which organized a large preparation for welcoming the yatra, resorted to a fire-fighting workout through instantly postponing the Congress employee chargeable for it.
Gandhi’s gray beard was once on the centre of a confrontation between the 2 events with Assam Leader Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claiming at a ballot rally in Gujarat that the previous Congress leader had began taking a look just like the overdue Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. This drew a rebuke from the Congress which mentioned he gave the impression of a “troll”. There have been additionally instances when dissensions inside the birthday celebration and its allies got here to the fore.
The Maharashtra leg noticed fissures floor between the Congress and its ideologically incompatible best friend Shiv Sena after Gandhi attacked Savarkar over his mercy petitions to the British.
In Madhya Pradesh, a disaster erupted within the birthday celebration in Rajasthan, the yatra’s subsequent vacation spot, when Leader Minister Ashok Gehlot slammed his former deputy Sachin Pilot and known as him a ‘gaddar’ in an interview.
The topic was once resolved within the nick of time and a display of harmony was once submit through Gehlot and Pilot with birthday celebration basic secretary, organisation, Ok C Venugopal brokering an uneasy truce simply forward of the yatra getting into the wasteland state.
Because the yatra entered Rajasthan, the spectre of Covid loomed huge. Union Well being Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote to Gandhi and Gehlot, asking them to believe postponing the march if Covid protocols may now not be adopted. Gandhi hit again announcing the BJP was once getting fearful and the use of Covid as an excuse to prevent his march.
The Congress and the BJP sparred when former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan joined the march after which later when former military leader Gen (retd) Deepak Kapoor participated within the yatra in Haryana.
The 2 events had been at loggerheads once more when Union minister Pralhad Joshi alleged that Gandhi was once occurring a vacation and this is the reason his Bharat Jodo Yatra had taken an extended smash December-end.
Congress basic secretary Jairam Ramesh has again and again demanded an apology from Joshi for his remarks that Gandhi was once occurring a vacation. Gandhi spent the smash in Delhi right through the December-end smash.
Gandhi’s white T-shirt, no sweater glance in north India’s famed iciness was once additionally the topic of a lot consideration. He mentioned he determined to put on handiest T-shirts right through the march after assembly 3 deficient ladies “shivering in torn garments” in Madhya Pradesh.
That is when he determined that till he shivers, he would possibly not put on a sweater, the Congress chief mentioned.
Previous this month, Gandhi sparked a row when he mentioned the Congress believes in ‘tapasya’, whilst the BJP is an organisation of ‘pooja’. India is a rustic of ‘tapasvis’ (ascetics) and now not ‘pujaris’ (clergymen), he mentioned. The BJP slammed Gandhi, announcing he Congress has “DNA of divide and rule”. “Admire Tapasya however why denigrate Pujaris,” a BJP spokesperson requested on Twitter.
Every other controversy to hit the Congress was once over Dongra Swabhiman Sangthan Sangathan Celebration (DSSP) chief Choudhary Lal Singh’s choice to enroll in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, resulting in objections from a bit of the Congress and different events.
Congress spokesperson Deepika Pushkar Nath resigned from the birthday celebration on January 17 over the birthday celebration agreeing to Singh’s beef up to the yatra, alleging that he was once accountable in sabotaging the 2018 Kathua rape case through “overtly protecting” the rapists of the eight-year-old woman.
Nationwide Convention vp Omar Abdullah additionally hostile the participation of Singh.
In the most recent row, senior Congress chief Congress chief Digvijaya Singh wondered the federal government’s claims on surgical moves and accused it of peddling lies. This drew a livid response from the BJP, which mentioned the opposition birthday celebration was once blinded through its “hate” for High Minister Modi and has “insulted” the military.
There have additionally been casualties right through the yatra.
Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary died following a cardiac arrest right through the Punjab leg. A Congress Seva Dal functionary died after collapsing in Nanded in Maharashtra.
But even so, a 62-year-old guy from Tamil Nadu died and someone else from that state was once injured after being hit through a truck in Nanded after they had been collaborating within the Congress’ foot march.
(This tale has now not been edited through NDTV body of workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
