BJY celebration of India’s diversity

Bharat Jodo Yatra has broken spiral of silence in country: Bhalla

RAJOURI, January 14, 2023:- Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra is an engagement – among and between the various ideas, the several streams of thought, the numerous aspirations, the disparate cultures.

It is the celebration of diversity as strength, instead of leaving it to the devices of those who see diversities as divisions. This was stated by JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla while convening series of Bharat Jodo Yatra preparatory meeting in Rajouri organized by former Minister Shabir Ahmad Khan.

District President Poonch Choudhary Ghani, DDC Member Sai Rashid, Refugee Cell Congress Chairman Amrit Bali, Madam Parveen Sarwar Khan, Municipality Chairman Thana Mandi Shakeel Mir, Sajad Tariq, Ajaz Choudhary, Bilal Rashid also accompanied JKPCC Working President.

Prominent among those present on the occasion include Anil Chopra, Ajit Singh, Bittu Shah, Pushpinder  Gupta, Vijay Guru, Suraj Parkash, Nain Chand Sharma, Zubair Mirza, Narjulla Mirza, Shamsher Singh, Fayeem Akhtar, Farooq Khan, Zubida Begum, Qazi Mohd. Sayeed, Madam Zabaida, Ishar Singh, Babu Mohd. Azam, Rattan Lal Metha, Lalit Mahajan, Gulzar Jatt, Bal Krishan Sharma besides others.

Speaking on the occasion, Bhalla said that India’s present rulers understand the importance of keeping the people busy in such futile arguments so that the people do not keep the rulers busy. There’s an atmosphere of gloom in the country. Tempers are high. From TV debates to social media interactions, we are constantly fighting each other.

Politics by its very nature invokes strong likes and dislikes, but such passions do not last beyond an election result. Cult politics however brings out the worst in all sides. The room for reasonable debate gets smaller and society is kept on the verge of a perpetual boiling point.

Bhalla claimed that Congress party has been at the forefront and mostly the only voice in the opposition space in raising issues that affect the everyday lives of people. Despite numerical constraints, the party successfully forced the government on Land Acquisition.

From demonetisation to Rafale, farm laws, Covid mismanagement, mishandling of the economy, Chinese aggression on our borders, the ticking time bomb of unemployment, most of the media alas chose to corner the opposition instead of the government. When traditional structures of mediation between the opposition and the people collapse, the template of politics automatically changes, added Bhalla.

Bhalla observed that Bharat Jodo Yatra is the Congress’ response to the organised disruption of democracy in the country. India needs a healing touch. Movements, agitations, opposition, media, civil society, writers, thought leaders are the ones who politicise societies around issues that require a collective political response. It is in the interest of Governments to keep societies by and large depoliticised, except during elections.

Last eight years have seen a new and dangerous phenomenon: of the government politicising the society, in issues that are the ideological backbone of the ruling party. What we are witnessing is a clever way of being in power but politicizing the society against all those who can constitute the opposition to the government, added Bhalla.

Bhalla said that Bharat Jodo Yatra isn’t just about walking the 3,570 Kms from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering 12 states. It is not a roadshow of a political party. He stated that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo yatra will bring back the Constitution and democracy in the country.Both are under threat under the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and in J&K. The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has broken the spiral of silence in the country. He said the yatra has given the people who are against the divisive politics in the country “a sense that they are not alone”.

“It has offered a ray of hope in very dark times,” Bhalla said. We are facing an extraordinary moment where the future of democracy and the constitution are at stake. An extraordinary moment like this requires you to set aside your prejudices and look at the bigger picture. What we need to do to save the country is to bring different energies together,” Bhalla said.

Shabir Khan speaking on the occasion said that there is no freedom of speech and freedom of questioning the government. Rahul Gandhi raised this issue in Parliament, as there is no change in the attitude of the central government and hence Rahul Gandhi started Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he said. He said, the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is being held to combat the divisive politics of the BJP-led Centre and to awaken the people of the country to the dangers of economic inequalities, social polarisation and political centralisation. He  said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra is a campaign that was beyond politics and stated there was a duty to ‘reclaim’ the country’s “lost honour.”

District President Poonch Choudhary Ghani speaking on the occasion said that unfortunately, despite getting a big mandate in each of the two general elections in 2014 and 2019, the Modi government has simply used its power to impose their vested thinking and ideas on the country.

In the process, it is relentlessly dismantling the Constitutional principles, riding roughshod over people’s aspirations and stifling their voices. The BJP is nothing but a vehicle for building a dictatorial, majoritarian State that crushes the working people, religious and linguistic minorities, destroys the democratic system, and does not hesitate to violate the rule of law to achieve its ends, added Ghani.

 Bhalla led Congress leaders also visited Dhangri village to meet terror attack victim’s families. Offering their condolences to the victims’ families, they said, “It was heartbreaking and painful to watch the families who lost their loved ones in an instance of mindless violence as a result of a monumental security breach. Congress leaders criticised Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and the Centre over their claims of restoration of normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The co-ordination between the Indian Army and the police needs to be stepped up with enhanced vigilance to prevent loss of innocent lives. Dhangri incident is an example of governance and administrative failure in full measure,” they said.They said the tragedy could have been avoided if the authorities were vigilant enough.

“This tragedy could have been avoided had the administration been a little vigilant and alert as this attack took place days after the Sidhra encounter,” they said. “It is clear that the LG administration and BJP in an attempt to pat their own backs by selling the lies of normalcy and peace have made people of Jammu and Kashmir vulnerable to such attacks and Rajouri was one such example. “It has become a habit of the LG administration to issue ex-gratia amount and announce jobs for the victims of terror attacks but they pay very less attention towards prevention of such dastardly attacks and protection of the citizens,” they said.


(NOTE: PRESS RELEASE PUBLISHED AS RECEIVED)