Bharat Jodo Yatra leaves Rajasthan, Rahul Gandhi carries ‘mohabbat ki dukaan’ to Haryana

Rahul Gandhi with ex-servicemen during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Nuh on Wednesday. (PTI)

He added, “This is not a new fight, do not think that this fight is of today or of the 21st century, this fight is thousands of years-old and in this fight, two ideologies historically have fought against each other and are still fighting. One ideology is which gives benefits to a select few and the other is the voice of farmers, poor, labourers.”

Gandhi said while the Bharat Jodo Yatra was against hatred, the issues of unemployment and inflation were hurting nation’s interests.

Calling unemployment as the “biggest issue” facing the country, Gandhi said that during the yatra, he met thousands of youths on the streets. “Some were engineers, some had studied medicine and wanted to be doctors, some wanted to be in IAS and a few who wanted to work in judiciary. When I asked them what they are doing now, the reply is that some are driving an Uber or doing labour work…aisa Hindustan humein nahi chahiye,” said Gandhi.

He said that “5-7 arabpatis” (billionaires) who have “lakhs/crores debts” were able to do pursue any business – infrastructure, airports, ports, agriculture – they desired, while small and medium businessmen had heen sidelined.

Reiterating that demonetization and GST were not ‘policies but weapons to kill off small businessmen’, he said that the target was to handover all the cash and wealth to a handful of rich people in the country. ” The result is that the country is unable to provide employment to its youth,” he said.

On inflation being another major concern in the country, Gandhi questioned the silence of BJP leaders including the Prime Minister on the issue of rising inflation.

“You must remember that price of a gas cylinder was Rs 400 when UPA was in power. Today, a cylinder costs Rs 1200. The price of petrol was Rs 60 per litre and today it is Rs 107 per litre. Wherever Narendra Modi Ji and BJP leaders used to go, they talked about inflation, but now they do not mention it at all,” he said.

He said that Congress was fighting on these three issues.

“Hindustan ko jodna hai, mehangai kam karni hai aur and berozgaari ko mitana hai,” he said.

Stating that the leaders of political parties were increasingly losing connect with people, he said, “I am talking about all political parties here – whether it is Congress, BJP or SP, netaon aur janta ke beech mein khai ban gyi hai. Leaders think there is no need to listen to people. They give long speeches. This yatra has tried to change that. We start early and walk for 6-7 hours for long distances and leaders listen to the problems of farmers, women, small shopkeepers, labourers and the youth and then a short speech of 15 minutes follows. We have given a vision for the nation’s politics.”

“Someone in a speech said I am the nation’s tapasvi. Meine koi bada kaam nhi kiya hai. In this country, crores of tapasvis daily wake up at 4 am and go to work in their farms, and they walk on the streets all their life…toh ye koi bada kaam nhi kiya hai jo hum Kanyakumari se Kashmir chal diye hein, isse bada kaam iss desh ke gareeb log, kisan, mazdoor har roz karte hein,” he said.