With the Congress announcing a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, more than 200 civil society members have appealed to the people to support the Congress and similar initiatives by any other organisation to stand up to the "systematic assault" on the unity and democracy of India. This includes Swaraj India founder Yogendra Yadav and journalist Mrinal Pande.
Rahul Gandhi will be flagging off the yatra on Wednesday, September 7, and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel will be present. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief MK Stalin will be presenting a Khadi national flag to Rahul Gandhi by MK Stalin. The ‘Bharat Yatris’ include Congress media department head Pawan Khera, former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) Kanhaiya Kumar, former Punjab minister Vijay Inder Singla, ex-Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy’s son Chandy Oommen, among others.
Rahul Gandhi also met people such as the co-founder of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) Aruna Roy, Swaraj India head Yogendra Yadav, writer and cultural activist Ganesh Devy, feminist writer and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed, and founder of the Safai Karmachari Andolan Bezwada Wilson. Yogendra Yadav recently announced that he will be resigning from the Samyukta Kisan Morcha to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The 150-day 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' of the Congress will be launched on September 7. Covering 3,500 km, the march will be the Congress' biggest ever public contact programme and Rahul Gandhi will walk "all the way" from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. The objective of the march is to "stir the conscience of the people in times when the constitutional values and democratic norms are being brazenly undermined" and the very idea of India has come under a "systematic assault," civil society members said in a statement.
"Never before have the values of our republic faced as heinous an assault as they have in the recent past. Never before have hate, division and exclusion unleashed on us with such impunity. Never before have an overwhelming majority of the farmers and workers, Dalits and Adivasis, women and religious minorities faced such effective exclusion in the shaping of the nation's future," they alleged, adding the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is set to take place in the context of "this grave national crisis".
This is a moment of reckoning. "Every one of us needs to say: No, not on my conscience. At stake is our unique pluralistic social fabric, which is our greatest civilizational inheritance, reflected in our Constitution. Let us all make Bharat Jodo Yatra the decisive step towards renewing our pledge to reclaim an India that is a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic with liberty, equality, justice and fraternity as its guiding lights", the civil society members said.
Swaraj India founder Yogendra Yadav, document filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, All India Secular Front's Anil Sadgopal, rights activist Anjali Bharadwaj, theatre maker Anuradha Kapur, eminent journalist Mrinal Pande, former MP Dharamveer Gandhi and former IAS officers Abhijit Sengupta and Sujata Rao are among the 204 civil society members who signed to the appeal and are expected.
"We appeal to every Indian who takes pride in this great civilization and who believes in a great future for our nation to support the Bharat Jodo Yatra and similar initiatives undertaken by any other organisation to defend against a systematic assault on Indian unity and democracy," they said. They underlined that people's movements have a consistent record of protesting against and resisting the unjust acts of any government, irrespective of the party in power, and will continue to do so.
"Our engagement with this yatra can take multiple forms - we can do so as individuals, as groups, as a party; we can create participatory events; we can join as performers, as creative artists or as intellectuals and academics; and, we can join as yatris, as fellow travellers in this journey," the civil society members added.
(With PTI inputs)