CHANDIGARH: DMK MP Kanimozhi joined Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra on Friday, saying she was delighted to be a part of the Yatra that celebrates India’s diversity. The Haryana leg of the Yatra entered Faridabad on Friday and will reach Delhi on Saturday.
The Yatra is scheduled to re-enter Haryana from Uttar Pradesh at Sanoli Khurd in Panipat district on January 6. While posting her pictures with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Kanimozhi tweeted: “I was delighted to take part in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which celebrates our diversity, in Haryana today. Mr @RahulGandhi’s vision of uniting India is an idea which will be taken forward by the people of India.’’
AICC in-charge for Haryana affairs Shaktisinh Gohil said the Yatra will enter Delhi from the Badarpur border on Saturday as the route plan for entering the national capital on Saturday has been finalised.
“No separate permission has been applied for the Yatra in Delhi or any other state through which the march has passed,’’ Gohil said.
Talking to the media in Faridabad, Congress MP Jai Ram Ramesh said, “This whole Covid drama over the last two days has been orchestrated to defame and derail the Bharat Jodo Yatra from coming to Delhi. That’s the only objective.”
He was asked if the government was selectively picking on the Yatra after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya wrote to Rahul to consider suspending the march if Covid protocols could not be followed.
“Any protocol based on scientific and medical advice that is uniformly implemented will be followed by the Congress party. We have always followed it,” he said. In a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, “We were not the party which gave solution that the Covid situation (after its outbreak in 2020) will be won in 18 days, like the Mahabharata war.”
Ramesh had on Thursday said the Union Health Minister’s letter to Gandhi over following Covid protocols in the march was based on concerns raised by three BJP MPs and not on advice of experts or scientists.