Hitting back at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Monday said those who stoke fires of hatred, bigotry, and prejudice must be prepared to take some things back in the same coin. He was responding to a question on Congress tweeting a picture of khaki pant with fire and the BJP accusing the grand old party of “instigating violence”.
Addressing a press conference here, Ramesh said, “The trouble is that the BJP and the RSS are not used to an aggressive response from the Congress.” “When the Congress gives an aggressive response then they (BJP) step back. If they get aggressive then we will be double aggressive,” the Congress Rajya Sabha MP said.
Ramesh added, “The elephant (Congress) has woken up and now it is taking giant steps. Every party is watching our move.” He said that opposition unity will be successful only when Congress is strong. And all opposition parties need to understand this, Ramesh added. “The Bharat Jodo Yatra was not meant for opposition unity but to strengthen the Congress and to unite India. However, if it results in opposition unity then too it’s good.”
He further explained that there is an attempt to break India and the divisive agenda there and the economic crisis is due to the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“To fight this, Bharat Jodo Yatra has been rolled out. It is a way to unite India,” he said. He also said that the yatra will complete 102 km by Monday evening in Kerala. Ramesh added on average “we are covering about 20 km every day”.
Ramesh said that the padyatra has become a chintan yatra. “It was never meant to be Mann Ki Baat, but it has turned out to be the BJP chintan yatra and thus, they are concerned,” he said.
The Congress leader said that after six days of the yatra, we have seen mobilization of people as Congress has gained strength in every state, district, and at the block levels and the party is witnessing a new vigour.
“Every morning, we have been witnessing people hitting the streets on their own. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, about 5,000 people are there in the morning, and by evening, it swells up to 25,000. The motive with which we started Bharat Jodo Yatra is being fulfilled,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh also said that he along with Digvijaya Singh will be travelling to Assam and West Bengal on September 16 and 17 respectively, to chalk out the yatra in non-Bharat Jodo Yatra states.
The Congress started the 3,570-km of Bharat Jodo Yatra from Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari on September 7. The yatra entered Kerala on Saturday evening. The yatra will remain in Kerala till September 29 and it will enter Karnataka on September 30.
Besides Rahul Gandhi, several party leaders are participating in the yatra. During the yatra, the Congress leader is meeting and interacting with the people.