Yatra vs yatra: Congress says will not call off Bharat Jodo Yatra, BJP ties itself in knots over its Rajasthan yatra

This Yatra will go to Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi said

The political slugfest over Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra amid increasing coronavirus cases continued on Thursday. A day after the Union health minister's letter to Rahul Gandhi suggesting he should suspend the yatra because of the rising coronavirus cases, the Congress ruled out calling off the march and committed to following all Covid-19 norms. It said the government was rattled at the response the yatra has received and trying to find excuses to suspend it, particularly as the march was set to enter Delhi on Saturday.

However, the BJP tied itself up in knots over the fate of its 'Jan Aakrosh Yatra' in the Congress-ruled Rajasthan. Launched by BJP President J P Nadda on December 1, BJP General Secretary Arun Singh announced in Delhi that the party was suspending the 'Jan Aakrosh Yatra', accusing the Congress of playing with people's lives by continuing with the Bharat Jodo Yatra. However, later in the day, BJP Rajasthan state unit chief Satish Poonia said the yatra would continue.

"So far, Jan Aakrosh sabhas have been organised in 41 Assembly constituencies. Since there is no advisory of the central and state governments, there was some confusion, the confusion was about suspending yatras, but our public meetings will take place," he said in a video statement in Jaipur. He said the Covid protocol will be followed in the public meetings, and the meetings will continue till there is any advisory from the central and state governments.

"Understand the chronology," the Congress said. It pointed to the Union health minister's letter to Rahul Gandhi over Covid-19 concerns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewing the coronavirus-related and government "suddenly agreed" to adjourn Parliament sine die on Friday, which it said was to use Covid to "defame and derail" the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"Modi government which never listens, suddenly agreed so that its use of Covid-19 to defame and derail Bharat Jodo Yatra acquires a shade of respectability," Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said. "Now, will the Modi govt make masks and sanitisers compulsory, curtail international flights and ban public gatherings? The Bharat Jodo Yatra will abide by a science-based and medical evidence-based protocol," he said.

On Wednesday, after the Union health minister's letter, the Congress had pointed out that the BJP was organising marches in Karnataka and Rajasthan. It said public health is far too serious an issue to play party politics with. "This Yatra will go to Kashmir. Now, they have come out with a new idea. They wrote me a letter that Covid was spreading, stop the yatra," Gandhi said while addressing a gathering in Ghasera village in Haryana's Nuh district on Thursday.