Kanyakumari, Sep 9: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with other 117 permanent members part of the Bharat Jodo Yatra who are accompanying him, will stay in freight containers for the next five months till the conclusion of the Yatra, a source said on Thursday.The Bharat Jodo Yatra would undertake a 3,570 km-long journey through 12 states, scaling from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
About 60 large freight containers equipped with sleeping beds, toilets, air-conditioners and other facilities have been put up keeping in mind the varying degrees of temperature, humidity and environmental aspects that Rahul Gandhi and those part of the Yatra would be facing in the next five months.
The container will be parked in a new place everyday in the evening in the village like milieu for unwinding the Yatris.
All the permanent Yatris of the journey will eat together and stay close.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Thursday shared a picture of Yatris with the container, saying: “Scenes from the evening… Yatris unwinding outside their containers at the end of a hectic but inspiring day of Bharat Jodo Yatra.”
Congress called the Yatra which was kicked off on Wednesday a ‘new beginning’ and a ‘turning point in Indian politics’.
“India is collapsing because of rising economic inequality and social polarisation,” said senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday while talking to IANS on the need of Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“In Udaipur, we discussed a lot of this and came to the conclusion that the economic challenges like inequalities, unemployment and inflation are rising every day. The way GST has been implemented has added to the injury. Tenders are being given to one or two companies only in the line of ‘Ham Do Hamare Do’ policy which has created much disparity. The social polarisation is being done in the name of religion, caste and language. And thirdly, it is the political centralisation as the whole politics is being done from the Prime Minister’s Office. All power has been shifted to the PMO. They are bypassing the constitutional norms and the central agencies are being misused. These are the three reasons that today Bharat is collapsing that’s why the Yatra has been undertaken,”