Rahul Gandhi started Bharat Jodo Yatra with a visit to his father and former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur, where the former Prime Minister was killed in a suicide attack on May 21, 1991. Yatra is all set to start At 4.30 pm today, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin will hand over the National Flag to Rahul Gandhi to mark the beginning of the Yatra. The same flag will be used for the entire stretch of the yatra.
Yatra will cover 12 states and 2 union territories. 59 trucks with customized containers mounted on their back. These containers will provide sleep pods and other facilities for 118 Bharat Yatris who would accompany Rahul Gandhi in the entire stretch of the Yatra.
“India is the institutions that protect this flag. India is free media that protects this flag. India is a judiciary that protects this flag. And today every single one of our institutions is under attack by BJP, RSS. They think this flag is their personal property. They think they can determine single-handedly the future of this people, state of this country,” Rahul Gandhi said in his address.
“We were instructed about the kind of discipline and behaviour that are expected from the yatris, the respect we should show to all religions, all languages,” says Sunkara Padamshree, 47, an All India Congress Committee member from Andhra Pradesh. Sunkara will accompany Rahul Gandhi in the entire yatra.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin handed over the flag to Rahul Gandhi in Kanyakumari which he will carry till the end of the Yatra. The Yatra will start on 7th September from Kanyakumari; pass through 12 states and culminate in Jammu and Kashmir – spanning a distance of nearly 3,500 Km over the course of about 150 days.
MK Stalin in Twitter wrote Today, my brother @RahulGandhi has begun a journey to retrieve India’s soul, to uphold the lofty ideals of our republic and to unite our country’s people with love. There can be no better place than Kumari, where the Statue of Equality stands tall, to start #BharatJodoYatra.