G A Mir convenes review and preparatory meeting of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in J&K
Steps on to ensure huge participation in ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’: Wani
JKPCC to make it grand success, says Raman Bhalla
Jammu: Incgarge Bharat Jodo Yatra J&K Coordinator GA Mir, Co-Coordinators Raman Bhalla and GN Monga today organized review and preparatory meeting in presence of JKPCC Chief Vikar Rasool Wani . Prominent among those present in the meeting include Manmohan Singh, Shabir Khan, Rajnish Sharma, Pranav Shagotra, Gurdarshan Singh, Satish Sharma, Amrit Bali, Sanjeev Sharma, Pankaj Dogra, Narinder Gupta, Pawan Raina, Shashi Sharma, Thomas Khokhar, Tariq hussain, Rakesh Wazir, Dwarka Choudhary, Pritam Singh, Sahil Sharma, Pankaj Sharma, Sumit Mangotra, Bopinder Singh Jamwal, Sandeep Dogra, Jahanzaib Sirwal, Bilal Rashid, Anoop Gupta, Pawan Bhagat, Jeevan Sanotra, Hoshiar Singh, Ajay Lakhotra , Vinay gupta and Balbir Singh others
Briefing about the purpose of meeting, held at residence of JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla JKPCC Chief said that J&K Congress is preparing for Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, with state party in-charge GA Mir and Co-incharge Raman Bhalla and GN Monga holding a meeting of all the committees formed for the yatra.The responsibilities of all the committees and the route of the yatra were decided in the meeting. In the meeting, it was decided to give responsibility to the leaders regarding the preparations for the yatra.
During the meeting, Wani took stock of the preparation for the yatra. The party leaders were assigned their roles for the yatra. “JKPCC has made elaborate arrangements under the leadership of Wani . More than one lakh people will be joining Bharat Jodo Yatra every day in J&K,” said Wani. He said that elaborate arrangements were being made by the Congress party to make the Bharat Jodo Yatra of AICC Leader Rahul Gandhi a grand success in J&K. He said Rahul Gandhi, through Bharat Jodo Yatra, has been raising a voice against the politics of division, rising unemployment, and problems being faced by the farmers and other weaker sections. “We cannot deny the fact that people are slowly losing their trust and hope on our party for various reasons. So, there is a need for preparatory and re-evaluation meetings. We will discuss, take decisions and leave no stone unturned to make a rock solid comeback,” said Wani .
Speaking on the occasion, Wani said ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra,’ is being organised with a big objective. “Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a journey with important issues like communal tension, inflation, unemployment in the country. It is the responsibility of all of us to make the yatra successful in J&K,” he said. “RaGa’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is important for Congress. He said, “It is unfortunate what kind of govts are formed in Delhi. Today the constitution is being torn into pieces. Bharat Jodo Yatra in J&K will turn out to be historic.” The time for symbolism is over; the time for action is now. The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi overflows with significance, evoking memories of writings on the Salt Satyagraha led by Mahatma Gandhi. Rahul is perhaps the only politician who has dared to take on Modi’s India sharply and perceptively, added Wani .
Former JKPCC Chief and Incharge Bharat Jodo Yatra in J&K GA Mir addressing the meeting said that the problem is that Rahul Gandhi concentrated attack on the BJP about the proximity of party leaders to the owners of capital, their complete indifference to the many problems that beset the country such as unemployment, the hijacking of institutions, the suspension of civil liberties, and above all, the sheer ugliness of the political discourse has begun to pale through repetition. I say this even as I appreciate the need for a constant critique of the government. But political practices cannot stop at critiques, they have to present to us an alternative vision of what India should be. The party has to state its stand, clarify where it speaks from, detail who it speaks for, and tell us why it speaks at all. There is a need to tell people not only where the Congress comes from, but what it has in store for a society that has been wracked by mutual suspicion, by vigilantism, by hatred, by violence, and by lack of effective governance.
Mir recalled Dr. Ambedkar had said in his final address on the draft constitution on November 25, 1949 that “howsoever good a constitution might be, it is sure to turn bad if those who are called upon to work it happen to be a bad lot. However bad a constitution maybe it might turn out to be good if those who work it are good. The working of a Constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution”. It depends also on the people and on the political parties they elect. “It is, therefore, futile to pass any judgement upon the Constitution without reference to the part which the people and their parties are likely to play.”Mir claimed that Constitutional norms have been ignored, contested, mediated, or dispensed with by the ruling party. Yet the establishment of procedures for the regulation of the power of decision-making is politically prudent. It is more desirable than the prospect of purely arbitrary decisions taken by authoritarian rulers. That is why the constitution provides an evaluative criterion to judge the state of democracy in the country.
JKPCC Working President and Co-incharge Bharat Jodo Yatra in J&K Raman Bhalla said when governments go wrong – as they tend to do periodically – every citizen should be able to state firmly that this is in violation of the constitution. Every citizen should be able to say that governments should provide us with basics, such as food, education and health services, because this is our right.We do not get food from the charity of leaders who personalise constitutional obligations. The government is obliged to care for the well-being of its people. The Bharat Jodo Yatra has brought to the fore the “real” Rahul Gandhi and completely changed the Congress MP’s image, Bhalla asserted. “Before the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the BJP had created his certain image, especially on social media; it never portrayed the right Rahul Gandhi. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is not showing the new Rahul Gandhi, it is showing the real Rahul Gandhi,” he said. “There is a complete change in his image due to the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Today, the Rahul Gandhi in media or on social media is not the one who was 70 days back,” Bhalla maintained.
Monga speaking on the occasion, said that the advantage of the 3,570-km mass outreach programme is that Rahul Gandhi is in direct contact (with people) without any middleman. The effect of this is that the “real” Rahul Gandhi is before everyone, he added. He said the programme has nothing to do with polls and it is a different initiative. “It is a yatra of a political party and we are fighting political challenges like economic disparity, polarisation in the society. Ninety per cent people who are part of the yatra are political. One thing is clearly seen in the way our party has united and the cohesion it has brought in the last 70 days…the way we have started working on time. There is an Indian Standard Time and there is a Congress Standard Time,” he added. This is a door-to-door campaign. This has not happened in many years and this used to be the peculiarity of the Congress, but we forgot this because we were in power for many years. But today there is a new start,” said Monga. “The Bharat Jodo Yatra is an opportunity for the party to reach out to people. For the first time people have hit the road in large numbers at district and block levels. This is a big change in the party,” Monga said.
(NOTE: PRESS RELEASE PUBLISHED AS RECEIVED)
