The goal of the Bharat Jodo Yatra is to save India’s liberal and secular way of life: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi held a rally in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday to mark the official end of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. He was joined by leaders of different national and regional parties.

Gandhi raised the national flag at the “Bharat Jodo Yatra” camp site in Srinagar, where he thanked the “Bharat Yatris” for their love, affection, and support during the 136-day march, which began in Kanyakumari on September 7 of last year.

Later, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress party, joined him at a rally that started at the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium. Representatives from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), and IUML also took part in the rally.

Gandhi, who has been wearing his trademark white T-shirt for the whole yatra, put on a “pheran” today to protect himself from the bone-chilling cold in Kashmir. He decided to only wear T-shirts on the padyatra after seeing three poor girls in Madhya Pradesh “shivering in torn clothes.”

On Sunday, the Congress leader put up the national flag at Lal Chowk, which is in the middle of Srinagar. He said that the “promise made to India” had been kept. During the nearly five-month-long padyatra, which went through 12 states and 2 Union Territories, many opposition party leaders and famous people from different fields took part. These included DMK leader MK Stalin, Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray, actor Swara Bhasker, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, author Harsh Mander, and activist Medha Patkar.

Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference on Sunday that he learned and understood a lot during the journey and that the Yatra gave the country a different way of looking at things.

“I met and talked to millions of people. I don’t know how to explain it to you. The goal of the yatra was to bring everyone in India together and stand up to the hate and violence that was spreading across the country. There has been a huge amount of interest. In fact, no one was expecting such a warm response,” he said.

Gandhi said that it was the most beautiful and important thing he had ever done in his life. He also said that he would decide if a west-to-east yatra could be done again in the future.

“I have not done this (Yatra) for myself or for the Congress, but for the people of the country” says Rahul Gandhi

After the rally in Srinagar that marked the end of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi said, “The goal of his Bharat Jodo Yatra was to save the liberal and secular spirit of the country, which, he said, was under attack by the BJP and the RSS.”

Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of the Congress party, said that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was not meant to win elections, but rather to fight back against the hate that the BJP and the RSS spread in the country. During his speech at the rally, he also said that Gandhi was determined to get Jammu and Kashmir back as a separate state.

“My brother has been on foot from Kanyakumari for the past five months. I used to think that it would take a long time for people to come out. But they were all over the place. When she spoke at the rally in Srinagar this afternoon, Priyanka Gandhi said, “They came out because the people of the country want to be one.”

What did the leaders of the other party say?

D Raja, the leader of the CPI, called on all secular parties in the country to “unite and free the country from BJP Raj.” “We all fought together for the country’s independence and freed it from the British Raj. “To free the country from BJP rule, all secular parties must work together,” he said.

National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah told Rahul Gandhi that he would like to walk with him on another yatra from the west to the east of the country.

“I want to congratulate Gandhi on this last event of the yatra on behalf of myself, my father, and my party. This journey was a success. “This yatra has shown that there are people in the country who like the BJP, but there are also people who like the other idea, which is brotherhood,” he said.

The leader of the RSP, Premchandran, said that his party stands with the leader of the Congress. “An important movement was started. “Rahul Gandhi has shown that he is the right leader to take on these forces that cause division,” he said.

Jammu and Kashmir leg of the Yatra

On the part of the Yatra that went through Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi was joined by Farooq and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and Mehbooba Mufti, the head of the PDP. “In Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi’s yatra is like a breath of fresh air. This is the first time since 2019 that so many Kashmiris have left their homes at once. “Walking with him was a great experience,” said Mehbooba Mufti.

Gandhi also sent flowers to the families of the 40 CRPF members who died in 2019 when a car bomb went off in the Pulwama district of J&K.

Gandhi later held a press conference where he talked about restoring Jammu and Kashmir as a state, but he didn’t say anything about restoring Article 370. The Center took it away on August 5, 2019.

Gandhi said, “The restoration of statehood and democratic process is a very important first step in Jammu and Kashmir.” He also said that the BJP was wrong when they said that security in the valley had improved.

“If what they say is true, why doesn’t the BJP hold a rally from Jammu to Lal Chowk? Why doesn’t Mr. Amit Shah walk from Jammu to Kashmir if things are so good? “I don’t think that makes sense,” the former head of Congress said.

He said, in response to a question about the promises Jawaharlal Nehru made to the people of Kashmir, “I am not happy with what I see in J&K. In fact, when I walk through J&K, I feel sad. When I first went to Jammu, I had a strange thought that my family had come from J&K and moved to Allahabad. And in a weird way, I was taking the trip my ancestors took backwards. So, in a way, I felt like I was going home, which was a very strong feeling. I like the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and I’ve come here with an open heart and arms to help in any way I can. I don’t want to talk about how it happened in the past… I want to look to the future.”

Chinese aggression on the border

Gandhi brought up the issue of Chinese aggression along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and said that the government’s plan to “completely deny” that the Chinese have “taken our land” is very dangerous because it would give the Chinese the confidence to do even “more aggressive things.”

“I think the best way to deal with these Chinese people is to be firm with them and make it clear that they are sitting on our land, which we will not allow… The Prime Minister of India is the only person in the country who thinks that China has not taken any land from India. I recently met some people who used to be in the army. One group was from Ladakh, and they told me that China has taken over 2,000 square kilometres of Indian land. They also said that many patrolling points that used to be in Indian territory are now firmly in Chinese hands,” he said.

A West to East Yatra in the future?

Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference in Srinagar on Sunday that even though the Yatra went from South to North, it had an effect on the whole country.

When asked if he would do another west-to-east journey, Gandhi said, “It just ended. So this question comes too soon. Yatris have walked thousands of kilometres, so let’s see what happens. Yatra went from the south to the north of the country, but it had an effect on the whole country. “It is a plan for the country, a way of life. This has changed things all over the country. Workers for the Congress have also gone on yatras in a number of states, so it has had an effect on the whole country. We’ll think about it (doing a yatra from west to east). I have two or three ideas,” he said.

“This is not the end, but the beginning and the first step,” he said, adding that the Congress yatris were eager to go on another yatra.