On eve of Narmada yatra, Digvijay Singh worried about lack of toilets

Don't want the dhotis of my colleagues or mine taken off during our yatra, Singh said in a reference to Ranchi civic body's idea of punishing people defecating in the open by taking away their lungis.
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh (File | PTI)
Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh (File | PTI)

JABALPUR: Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh is poised to start his 3,300 km perambulation of the Narmada river on Saturday but he is worried that there are no mobile toilets along the way.

"I don't want the dhotis (lungis) of my colleagues or mine taken off during our yatra," said Digvijaya Singh in a dig at the Ranchi Municipal Corporation's (RMC's) unique idea of punishing people defecating in the open by taking away their lungis.

"Nowadays anything can happen. Political hounding is going on in the country. Arbitrary orders (Tughlaki farmaan) are being issued under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (SBA)," he added.

Asked about reports that the state government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan has not responded to his plea for mobile toilets along the 3,300 km yatra, the Congress leader said, "I wrote a letter to the Madhya Pradesh chief minister and chief secretary seeking mobile toilets among other things during my yatra, but an under-secretary replied to me stating that issues raised by me have been sent to the departments concerned."

The Narmada Parikrama is a walk along the banks of the river. Digvijay Singh will start off Saturday from the holy Barman Ghat after seeking the blessings of his Guru Dwarka-Sharda Peeth Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, at Narsinghpur. Congress sources said he is undertaking this arduous exercise on the advice of the religious leader.

The 70-year-old leader said the yatra is entirely a religious and spiritual exercise and that nothing political should be read into it.

Taking a jibe at the government's programme 'Namami Devi Narmade Sewa Yatra', the leader said, "(CM Shivraj Singh) Chouhan has spent hundreds of crores on the publicity of 'Namami Devi...'. It was claimed that the government has planted 6 crore saplings along the Narmada. I am not going to count them."

The yatra will pass through 110 Assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh and 20 constituencies in Gujarat. He will walk 20-km every day. Assembly elections are due in the BJP-ruled state next year.

Digvijay Singh, a descendant of the erstwhile royal family of Raghogarh, would be missing the Dussehra festival -- falling on September 30 -- celebrations at the Raghogarh fort in Guna district for the first time this year.

His family's tradition of celebrating Dussehra in a grand way dates back to over three centuries.

The senior Congress leader said he is not a potential contender for the chief minister's post in the Assembly polls.

"The party's top leadership will decide who will be the party's chief ministerial face in the next Assembly elections," he told reporters.

Earlier, veteran Congress leader Kamal Nath said he was in favour of projecting Jyotiraditya Scindia, party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, as the chief ministerial face.

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