Kathua, Jan 1: Jammu Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) Working President Raman Bhalla on Sunday said the party has reached out to “like-minded” leaders to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi.
“Some have already joined and some have agreed to join like Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq Abdullah,” Bhalla said, adding that the party activists will distribute letters written by Rahul Gandhi and a “charge-sheet against the BJP government” to every person.
According to a statement, Bhalla, who was accompanied by Pranav Shagotra, on Sunday convened block-level meetings at Hiranagar, Keerian Gandyal, Kathua Railway Station Govindsar which were organized by District Kathua president Pankaj Dogra. Prominent among those present on the occasion were Sohan Lal, Rakesh Kumar, Jagdish Dogra, Pankaj Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Anant Ram, Nirdosh Sharma, Rajnish Verma, Arun Metha, Ramesh Chander, Yog Raj, Gurdev Singh, Paramjeet Singh, Ravinder Pal Singh, Raman Thapa, Dr Satish Kumar, Parveen Sharma and others.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said, “Rahul Gandhi through Bharat Jodo Yatra has opened the shop of love in the marketplace of hatred. This line has been echoing throughout the Congress outreach programme which commenced from Kanyakumari and ends at Srinagar on January 23.”
But the Congress is not planning to sit back after the yatra comes to an end officially, the JKPCC Working President said. “On January 26, the party will start the ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan’, which will continue for the next two months.”
He said Bharat Jodo Yatra has become a movement. “Lakhs of people are participating in this yatra every day. Starting from Kanyakumari, till today, crores of people have participated. Apart from Congress leaders, general people enthusiastically participated in the yatra … their involvement is huge in this yatra, which will resume from January 3,” he said.
“As this yatra emerged as the greatest movement in this country, a proper follow-up is needed. That is why the Congress Steering Committee decided for a ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan’ from January 26 onwards. This will be a two-month massive campaign at the grassroots level. Two months of continuous padyatra will be there at the block level under the leadership of senior leaders, while state units will assign two leaders for each block to conduct the yatra,” the Congress leader said. “The yatra will be undertaken by the leadership of the Block Congress Committee, but two leaders deputed by the state unit will be there to lead the yatra.”
Raman Bhalla said the critics now accept that the yatra is successful. “They too have been heard praising the kind of effort Rahul Gandhi is putting in the yatra,” he said, and urged “every Congressman and Congresswoman to work with unity, faith, determination, and a sense of collective purpose”.
“The victory of the party,” he said, “will be the victory of every leader and karyakarta and a victory for the idea of India that guided our freedom movement and is enshrined in our Constitution”. “Crores of people struggle with soaring prices (increasing at nearly 7%) and record unemployment (8%), even as the government allows the concentration of the nation’s wealth in a few chosen hands. Economic growth continues to slide with every passing year,” he said.
“The deliberate subversion of, and attack on constitutional institutions continues. The premeditated attempt that is underway to delegitimise (sic) the judiciary and orchestrate a confrontation between the executive and the judiciary is particularly alarming. The government continues its silence on Chinese incursions on the border and the change in status quo on the LAC, even as credible reports indicate increased deployment of Chinese troops and weaponry,” he said.
