Yatra continues till hatred is eradicated, India is united: Rahul Gandhi on Bharat Jodo Yatra anniversary

Rahul Gandhi. File Pic

On the first anniversary of the launch of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the yatra will continue till hatred is eradicated and India is united.

Rahul Gandhi also shared a video montage on X of his over 4,000 km Kanyakumari to Kashmir yatra that was launched on this day last year.

In a post in Hindi, Rahul Gandhi said, "The crores of steps of Bharat Jodo Yatra towards unity and love have become the foundation of a better tomorrow for the country."

"The journey continues - till hatred is eradicated, till India unites. This is my promise!" the former Congress chief said.

On the first anniversary of the party's Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said the foot march was not just a physical endeavour but a sincere effort to "rebuild our broken collective conscience".

Describing the Bharat Jodo Yatra as a people's movement, Mallikarjun Kharge said it continues to fight the menace of hate and hostility in society through a conversation.

"The Bharat Jodo Yatra is not just a physical endeavour, it is a sincere effort to rebuild our broken collective conscience. Our ingrained values of justice, liberty equality, and fraternity, for us, are supreme," Mallikarjun Kharge said in a statement posted on X.

"The Congress party is continuously reaching out to people in an endeavour to reclaim our Constitution and protect our Democracy," he said.

"The trend of manufacturing irrelevant headlines to divert attention from the real issues of people to hide the agenda of hate and division is a systemic attack on our collective conscience," Mallikarjun Kharge said.

He asserted that the yatra "seeks to bring real issues of economic inequalities, price rise, unemployment, social injustices, subversion of Constitution, centralisation of power, to the centre stage of people's imagination".

The Bharat Jodo Yatra is "a people's movement, unequalled in history", Kharge said.

"As the yatra completes one year today, on behalf of the Indian National Congress, I congratulate Rahul Gandhi, all Bharat Yatris and the lakhs of our citizens who walked and joined in this historic endeavour," he said.

From Kanyakumari to Kashmir, the Bharat Jodo Yatra covered more than 4,000 kilometres and carried a message of unity in diversity, with lakhs of people from all walks of life, the Congress chief said.

During the course of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi addressed 12 public meetings, more than 100 street corner meetings and 13 press conferences. He had over 275 planned walking interactions and more than 100 sitting interactions.

Several experts had said a big takeaway from the Bharat Jodo Yatra for the Congress had been Rahul Gandhi's image transformation -- from a reluctant and part-time politician to one who is mature and taken seriously by opponents.

With over 4,000 kilometres under his belt, Gandhi had managed to catch the attention of his supporters as well as detractors.

The march saw participation from a cross-section of society, including film and TV celebrities such as Kamal Haasan, Pooja Bhatt, Riya Sen, Swara Bhasker, Rashami Desai, Akanksha Puri and Amol Palekar.
Besides, writers and military veterans, including former Army chief Gen (Retd) Deepak Kapoor and ex-Navy chief Admiral (Retd) L Ramdas, and noted people such as former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan and ex-finance secretary Arvind Mayaram had also participated in the yatra.

Opposition leaders such as National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti, Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Sanjay Raut and NCP's Supriya Sule, had also walked alongside Gandhi at various points in time during the march.

(With inputs from PTI)