The Congress will follow all COVID-related guidelines, but the Bharat Jodo Yatra will not be stopped, senior party leader Salman Khurshid said on Thursday, December 22. His statement came after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asking them to consider suspending the march if COVID-19 protocols cannot be followed.
"The Congress will follow all the precautions related to the prevention of COVID, but the yatra will not stop, will not stop, will not stop," the yatra's coordination committee chairman in Uttar Pradesh, told reporters in Lucknow. He was answering a question on whether the letter will affect the march.
"In a democratic system, every party and individual has the right to speak their mind," he said. "The government is scared of this Congress yatra, that is why various orders and letters are being issued. Those who did not get scared of COVID, got scared of yatra. We will not take any letter seriously," he said.
The former union minister said the Congress has taken necessary permission from the administration concerned for the yatra. If the BJP government will try to stop it through administration, then it will be answerable to the democratic institutions. Reacting to the prime minister's arrival to the House wearing a mask, Khurshid said, "Prime Minister Modi is a very good theatre artist."
Elaborating on the yatra's details, he said the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' will enter Uttar Pradesh from Ghaziabad's Loni area on January 3, adding, "After that it will enter Haryana via Baghpat and Shamli."
Congress spokesman Ashok Singh said All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Priyanka Gandhi will participate in the yatra throughout its duration of three days in Uttar Pradesh. Khurshid said at least 11,000 party workers will participate in this yatra. Apart from that, farmers' and weavers' organisations, students' unions, social workers, writers, poets and spiritual personalities will also be invited to participate in the march, he said. The opposition parties are also being invited as this march does not belong to any single party but to the entire country. Hopefully, they too will join it, he added.
On being asked whether the invitation has also been extended to Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, Khurshid said, "When I will know about it, I will tell you."
"The yatra is to be taken out in a straight line from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Accordingly, the yatra was not supposed to enter Uttar Pradesh, but considering the importance of this state, the yatra will touch UP as well," he said, answering a question on state capital Lucknow's absence from its itinerary.