NEW DELHI: Flagging significant security breaches in the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress on Wednesday wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah urging him to take immediate steps to ensure his safety is not compromised.
In his letter, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said the security of the Yatra was compromised on multiple occasions while on its entry into Delhi on December 24. He alleged that Delhi Police failed to control the crowd and maintain a perimeter around Rahul, who is assigned Z-plus security.
“The situation was so severe that the Congress workers and the yatris walking along with Rahul Gandhi had to form the perimeter,” he said. During the Yatra’s Haryana leg, too, unknown persons allegedly belonging to the Haryana state intelligence entered the containers that serve as mobile dwelling units for the yatris, he said. “Congress had filed an FIR dated 23rd December at Sohna City Police Station in Haryana regarding unknown miscreants, belonging to Haryana State Intelligence, have been illegally entering Bharat Jodo Yatra’s containers in Haryana,” the letter read.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is slated to enter the sensitive states of Punjab and J&K in the next phase. After its nine-day break, the Yatra will resume on January 3 from Kashmere Gate in Delhi and enter UP the same afternoon. Venugopal recalled that the Congress lost prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi to terror attacks. Besides, the party’s entire leadership in Chhattisgarh was wiped out in a Naxal attack in 2013.
Shah reviews security situation in J&K
Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday reviewed the security situation in J&K at a high-level meeting in Delhi. The Bharat Jodo Yatra’s J&K leg is also said to have figured in the deliberations | P7