Rahul Gandhi: Government finding excuses to stop 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused the government of finding excuses to stop his Bharat Jodo Yatra.


"They have now come up with a new idea. They wrote a letter to me and said Covid is coming so stop the yatra. They are coming up with excuses to stop the yatra. Wear masks, Covid is spreading, these are all excuses," Rahul said at a rally in Haryana.

"Hindustan ki shakti say, Hindustan ki Sachai say, yeh log dar gaye hai, yeh sachai hai (they have got scared of power and truth of the country. This is the truth)," the former Congress chief said.

"The Bharat Jodo Yatra has been going on for more than 100 days and in this people from all faiths, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, men, women, and children have taken part. But no one even asked anyone what their religion was, what language they spoke or from which place they came from. In this yatra, for 24 hours, people respected each other and hugged each other and spread love," Rahul Gandhi said.


Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya had on Tuesday written a letter to Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot asking them to comply with Covid protocols or consider suspending the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra.'

The Congress had reacted strongly to the letter accusing the Union health minister of targeting the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Mandaviya had on Wednesday held a high-level review meeting to assess the Covid situation in view of the surge in cases in China and other countries.

" The threat of Covid is not over yet," he had said after the meeting.


The government has urged states to be on alert and has advised people to use masks in crowded places. States have also been told to do genome sequencing of all positive cases to keep a track on possible Covid variants.

The government has also decided to conduct random sampling of 2% of international flyers.

India has detected four cases of BF.7 variant, which is behind the surge in Covid cases in China.