Bharat Jodo Yatra ends on white Monday in Kashmir; Rahul unfurls tricolour

The Bharat Jodo Yatra ended on Monday in an opposition show of strength with leaders of several parties joining Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as he capped his ambitious 145-day journey that covered some 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
The former Congress president unfurled the tricolour at the yatra campsite and then went to the Pradesh Congress Committee office where party chief Mallikarjun Kharge hoisted the national flag. From there they went to the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium at the foothills of the Shankaracharya Hills for a rally marking the grand finale of the cross-country yatra. “I have not done this (yatra) for myself or for the Congress but for the people of the country. Our aim is to stand against the ideology that wants to destroy the foundation of this country,” Gandhi said.
Those on stage in a show of solidarity included leaders from the DMK, National Conference, People’s Democratic Party, CPI, BSP, IUML, JMM, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, and Revolutionary Socialist Party.
Among the notable absentees of the 22 parties invited were the Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party and JD(U). Sources said some opposition party leaders could not make it on account of the weather. However, some leaders had also expressed their inability to be part of the rally on account of previous commitments.
In a speech that was in turn political and personal, Gandhi challenged the BJP top brass to undertake a yatra such as his in Jammu and Kashmir and said they would never do it as they were scared.
Rahul, who started walking on September 7 last year and crossed a dozen states and two Union Territories, said he was advised against walking the Jammu and Kashmir lap on the grounds that he might be attacked. “I thought over it and then decided that I will walk in my home and with my people (in J&K)….The people of Kashmir did not give me hand grenades, only their hearts full of love,” he said.
He also recalled the moments when he was informed about the assassination of his grandmother and father, former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. “Those who incite violence – like Modiji, Amit Shahji, the BJP and the RSS – will never understand this pain. The family of an Army man will understand, the family of the CRPF personnel who were killed in Pulwama will understand, Kashmiris will understand that pain when one gets that call.”
Congress president Kharge and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also spoke.
BJY brought all anti-social elements together: BJP
IANS: BJP national spokesperson and MP, Sudhanshu Trivedi slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday for the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Kashmir. Trivedi said that “Rahul Gandhi brought all the anti-social elements together through the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’”. He added that “Rahul Gandhi was able to unfurl the national flag because of the sacrifices BJP leaders did”.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Delhi, Trivedi mentioned several participants of the yatra and questioned their credentials. Most of them had walked with Gandhi during different parts of the foot march.
“It was a politically motivated Yatra. During the Yatra, Congress leaders organised a beef party on roads of Kerala, Pastor George Ponniah termed land of India as ‘impure’,” the BJP national spokesperson said.
He added that the former Congress President’s co-travellers included Kanhaiya Kumar who was “associated with the “tukde tukde gang”, and Digvijay Singh who raised questions over the surgical strike.
“With these hatemongers what is the campaign of love which Rahul Gandhi is running,” he said.
Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ which started from Kanyakumari on September 7 concluded in Srinagar on Monday.