The Karnataka leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra began from Gundlupet near the State’s border with Kerala and Tamil Nadu on Friday, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying that the Kanniyakumari-to-Kashmir march had become “inevitable after the ruling BJP barred the voice of the Opposition in democratic forums such as Parliament and the media”.
“The entire control of the media is in the hands of the government. If we try to say something in Parliament, our microphones are shut,” he lamented and accused the BJP of obstructing the functioning of the Vidhana Sabhas and arresting Opposition leaders.
‘Voice of India’
The Congress was left with no option but to walk thousands of kilometres across the country and become the “voice of India”, he said, while making it clear that no force can stop the padayatra, which had wound its way through Tamil Nadu and Kerala before entering Karnataka.
Addressing a large gathering of the public at Gundlupet in Chamarajanagar district, Mr. Gandhi said people meeting them during the course of the padayatra share the pain they endure on account of unemployment, rising prices of essential commodities, atrocities on farmers, and privatisation of public sector undertakings.
The aim of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which has been taken up to counter the “ideology of hatred and violence” that is spread by the BJP and the RSS and to protect the country’s Constitution, was also to listen to the “voice of India”, he said.
Over 500 km
After winding through Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Mr. Gandhi’s padayatra will cover more than 500 km over the next 21 days in Karnataka, which is expected to face the Assembly elections in the next six months. Over the next few days, the march will give voice to the “pain and hurt” of people in Karnataka when issues of corruption, unemployment, and price rise are raised.
Mr. Gandhi, who travelled the stretch of forest between Gudalur in Tamil Nadu and Gundlupet in Karnataka by car on Friday morning, was received near Bandipur National Park by the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Mr. Gandhi hit the road soon after addressing a gathering at Gundlupet and headed towards Begur on the national highway towards Mysuru, accompanied by senior leaders from Karnataka, including Mr. Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar, and a large number of party supporters.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who also spoke at the public meeting in Gundlupet, alleged that the BJP was against democracy, securalism and the Constitution. He said the BJP had made a futile attempt to rewrite the Constitution during the regime of the former Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee. The Constitution may well have been replaced had it not been for the then President of the country K.R. Narayanan, he alleged.
Mr. Shivakumar, in his address to the gathering, said the purpose of the yatra was to bring harmony to society which had been disturbed by the divisive politics of the BJP.
A host of party leaders, including All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council B.K. Hariprasad, were also present at the public meeting.
