Yatra politics by BJP, Congress
◗ Rahul Gandhi led a ‘padyatra’ of a large number of party workers till Rajghat, while Union home minister Amit Shah flagged off the ‘Gandhi Sankalp Yatra’ from Haiderpur in North Delhi
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Wednesday set off on their separate “padayatra politics” on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi led a “padyatra” of a large number of party workers till Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Rajghat, while Union home minister Amit Shah flagged off the “Gandhi Sankalp Yatra” from Haiderpur in Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency in the national capital.
While Congress leaders across the country took part in the padyatra only for a day, as a mark of respect for the Father of The Nation, the BJP’s “Gandhi Sankalp Yatra” will continue for the next 15 days. The BJP has asked all its MPs to carry out the yatra in their respective constituencies.
Addressing the gathering at Haiderpur, Mr Shah appealed to people to follow Narendra Modi’s call to shun single-use plastic and said he is the only Prime Minister who has made cleanliness a mass movement, after Gandhi.
Mr Shah, who is also the BJP president, said that the party’s elected representatives will undertake the “padyatra” for a fortnight to take Mahatma Gandhi’s values and principles to the masses.
BJP MPs, MLAs, organisational leaders and other party members undertook two kilometers long padyatra and spoke about nonviolence, peace, use of khadi and cleanliness in events held across the country.
In the run up to Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, Mr Modi had given a call to his party to make the day memorable and asked its leaders to organise events and padyatras to commemorate the day.
Rahul Gandhi led the Congress padyatra, preceded by a tableau of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and his iconic wooden spinning wheel mounted on a vehicle. Many Congress workers sported Mahatma Gandhi’s
continues to emphasise that all legal remedies are open to these people. The MEA had earlier reiterated that the NRC is a transparent legal process monitored by the Supreme Court and that the NRC process is India’s “internal matter”.
It may be recalled that the MEA had last month said those who didn’t find their names in the NRC are not “stateless” and will continue to enjoy all the rights of citizens until they exhaust all the remedies available under law. The MEA had also said exclusion from the NRC has no implication on the rights of an individual resident in Assam and that they will not be deprived of any rights or entitlements which they have enjoyed before till they exhaust all legal remedies available to them as per law.
The NRC had been prepared to reportedly identify Indian citizens living in Assam since March 24, 1971 or before. Out of 3.3 crore applicants, over 19 lakh people were excluded from the final NRC published recently.
In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, the MEA said, “At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, will pay an official visit to India from October 3-6, 2019. During this first visit of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India since the completion of elections in Bangladesh and India, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will call upon Hon’ble Rashtrapatiji, and hold bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 5.”
The MEA added, “The two Prime Ministers will also jointly inaugurate three bilateral projects via video link. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will also participate as Chief Guest at the India Economic Summit organised by the World Economic Forum on October 03-04, 2019.”