Rahul Gandhi wraps up Delhi leg of Yatra with riot-hit areas, crowds welcome gesture

The Indian Express | 10 hours ago | 03-01-2023 | 07:40 pm

The Indian Express

10 hours ago | 03-01-2023 | 07:40 pm

Almost three years after he likened the burning of a public school, targeted during the Northeast Delhi riots of 2020, to “the destruction of values such as brotherhood, unity and love in the country”, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra took the same route Tuesday reiterating the message.From the resumption of the Yatra in Delhi from Marghat Hanuman Mandir in Kashmiri Gate, where Rahul paid obeisance, to its route through the 2020 riot-hit areas – Seelampur, Jafrabad, Gokulpuri and Shiv Vihar, among others – before entering Loni in Ghaziabad, the intent was evident.Among the places the Yatra halted was Crescent Public School, where Rahul and the others took a meal.The people showed their appreciation with the huge crowds that turned up to witness the Yatra, and to praise Rahul for “possessing the courage to walk among us”.With the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party staying away, the Congress was the only major party of Delhi that had spoken up for the affected areas during the violence. In the recent municipal corporation elections, the Congress won six of its nine wards from these areas.Alongside the Yatra, the conversation centred around prospects of the Congress reviving itself, particularly in Delhi, where it now has zero seats in both the Lok Sabha and Assembly. The Congress too went out of its way to showcase its strength here, with makeshift stages bursting with local leaders and supporters every few hundred metres.“People can think or say whatever they want, but look around you and then ask yourself whether the Congress is over in Delhi,” said Shahuddin, a resident of Babarpur who said he has been associated with the party for generations.Ehsaan Khan, a resident of Brijpuri, said Northeast Delhi had “always been a Congress stronghold” and welcomed the party’s decision to conclude its Delhi leg there.Mohit Gupta, a resident of Shahdara who participated in the Yatra agreed. “It takes courage to walk among the people instead of looking down upon them from your throne. Thousands of us have come out today because Rahulji respects us enough to have come to meet us,” he said.In early March 2020, Rahul had visited Arun Modern Public Senior Secondary School in Brijpuri, adjacent to Mustafabad, where much of the violence had been seen during the riots, and met riot victims. Likening the school’s vandalisation to vandalisation of “India’s image and traditional values”, he had said: “India’s strength, our strength, brotherhood, unity and love, have been burnt and destroyed here.”On Tuesday, during his halt at the Crescent School, Rahul similarly met local residents, and the party said it showed his faith in education and the coming generations.Wrapping up the Delhi leg, Rahul moved towards Jafrabad on way to UP. Meanwhile, the numbers behind him kept growing.