The Indian National Congress (INC) has launched the “Bharat Jodo Yatra” campaign that will cover over 3500 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 150 days, and aims to take a next step to begin a direct dialogue with the people of India on the serious issues confronting the country.
The Congress has alleged that:
The economy is in tatters. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Common people are badly hurt by relentless price rise and record unemployment. Kisans and Khet mazdoors are buried under debt. The assets of our country built up over the past 70 years are being handed over to Modiji’s billionaire crony-capitalist friends. Society is divided.
We are consantly being divided on the basis of caste, religion, region, language, food, dress. Every day a new conspiracy is hatched to make Indians fight one another. Women feel insecure. The divisions being created can only weaken our unity and help our enemies who have become bolder in recent years. Just recently we learned that China has taken control of not 1,000 sq km but 2,000 sq km of our land in Ladakh. While the ruling party continues to divide our society, serving our enemies’ cause.
Our rights are being trampled upon. The voice of the people is being suppressed and our Constitutional rights are being crushed. Institutions like Parliament and the media are no longer available to discuss the issues that we face in our lives.
Instead, systematic efforts are being made to subvert our Constitution, dismantle our institutions and hollow out our democracy. State governments elected by the people are being destabilised by money power and the misuse of investigative agencies. Dalits, Adivasis and. backward classes are being deprived of their basic rights—jal, jangal and zameen.
