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Imphal: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is set to lead the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, a massive two-month long 6,713-km trek. The yatra, which was originally scheduled to start from Imphal, has shifted its starting line to the historic Khongjom War Memorial in Manipur’s Thoubal district. The change began when the Manipur government rejected the initial request to hold the event in Imphal, citing the ongoing tension in the state.
The flagging-off ceremony should not exceed an hour and the number of participants be a maximum of 3000, according to the order issued by the office of Thoubal deputy commissioner.
Despite initial refusal, Manipur Congress president Keisham Meghachandra reported that the state government eventually accepted the use of the Hapta Kangjeibung public ground. However, they cut the number of participants allowed for an event of this scale. The trip is expected to be attended by 60-70 participants, is primarily planned to be an overland journey undertaken by bus.
The yatra will be flagged off by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge tomorrow at 12 noon. This route has been carefully planned to span 110 districts across 15 different states, which will finally start in Mumbai on March 20.
6,713 km area to be covered in 67 days
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would traverse 6,713 km mostly in buses but also on foot. The yatra will cover 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 assembly segments in 67 days, before its finale in Mumbai on March 20 or 21.
Besides Manipur, the yatra will cover four northeastern states — Nagaland (257 km in two days), Arunachal Pradesh (55 km in one day), Meghalaya (five km in one day) and Assam (833 km in eight days). The yatra will then move on to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Bharat Jodo Yatra 2.0
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh has assured that the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would prove to be as impactful and transformative as the earlier over 4,000-km Bharat Jodo Yatra. During the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi had raised three big issues of rising inequality, growing social polarisation and increasing political tyranny and authoritarianism, and the way out of this is to ensure justice for people, Ramesh has said.
Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is a conscious initiative that reportedly aims to address the political, economic and social injustices that have been unfolding over the past decade. Through this yatra, the Congress party wants to make a big difference between the ‘Amrit Kaal’ or the golden era declared by the government and what they call ‘Anya Kaal’ or the era of injustice. In short, the Yatra is an ideological journey, a ray of hope in the fight against polarization, economic inequalities and political authoritarianism.
