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Veteran socialist leader Pandit Ramkishan backs former MP Brijendra Singh’s ‘Sadbhav Yatra’
Brijendra Singh currently serves as the vice-chairman of the All India Congress Committee’s Foreign Affairs Department.
Pandit Ramkishan flagged off the Sadbhav yatra in Nuh, located in Haryana’s Mewat region. (Photo special arrangement)
After former Union minister Kumari Selja and Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, veteran socialist and former Lok Sabha MP Pandit Ramkishan, 99, has extended his support to Brijendra Singh’s Sadbhav Yatra (Harmony March).
Former Hisar MP Brijendra Singh – an ex-IAS officer – embarked on the Sadbhav Yatra across Haryana on October 5. In over two months, he has already covered nearly 1,000 km. Singh currently serves as the vice-chairman of the All India Congress Committee’s Foreign Affairs Department.
On Thursday, Ramkishan flagged off the yatra in Nuh, located in Haryana’s Mewat region.
Political observers said Ramkishan’s presence carries symbolic weight. He is remembered as one of the first Hindus to enter Mewat in 1945-46, at the height of Partition tensions, to persuade Muslims not to migrate to Pakistan. He documented this in his memoir, Main Zinda Hoon: Shatabdi ka Sakshi; Samajwadi ka Prahari.
At the time, Communist leader and Aligarh Muslim University scholar Dr Kunwar Mohammad Ashraf had approached the young Ramkishan in Bharatpur (Rajasthan), urging him to accompany him to Mewat. While many hesitated, Ramkishan joined Ashraf, marking his entry into the region.
Throughout his career, Ramkishan was repeatedly arrested for championing the rights of tribals, Dalits, and the poor. At the request of socialist icon Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, he mobilised farmers and farm labourers in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur-Banswara belt during 1958-60. He also played an active role in movements led by Jayaprakash Narayan and Lohia, facing imprisonment multiple times, including during the Emergency.
Ramkishan was elected once to the Lok Sabha in 1977 and four times to the Rajasthan Assembly – in 1962, 1967, 1974, and 1990.
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