As the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ completed its journey in Assam on Thursday, the eight-day journey was very eventful and led to a heated exchange between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Although the ‘Nyaya Yatra’ or justice march received high decibel publicity after Gandhi called Sarma “India’s most corrupt Chief Minister”, it faced hurdles even before the actual event began when the night halt at Jorhat and Dhemaji Permission was given for two public grounds. Cancelled.
The Congress took full advantage of this and accused the BJP-led Assam government of “undemocratic attitude” and arranged for it on personal grounds.
The ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ was marked with considerable drama when Gandhi was stopped from heading towards the birthplace of revered Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardev in Assam’s Nagaon district on the day the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple took place.
As soon as he entered Assam from Nagaland on January 18, Gandhi criticized the ruling government and alleged that the state probably has the “most corrupt government” and “most corrupt CM” in the country, prompting Sarma to launch a retaliatory action. . The attack came within hours by branding the Gandhi family as the “most corrupt” in the country. “Probably, the most corrupt government in India is in Assam. You know what is happening here… corruption is rampant in Assam. We all know that perhaps the most corrupt chief minister in India is the chief minister of Assam,” Gandhi said at two public meetings in Sivasagar and Jorhat.
In another public address in Jorhat city, Gandhi alleged that Sarma’s entire family is involved in corruption. “His children, himself and wife – all are involved in some or the other corruption. He thinks that money can buy the people of Assam because they can be bought. Sarma later described the Gandhi family as the country’s “most corrupt”. “According to me, the Gandhi family is the most corrupt family in the country.
“They are not only corrupt but also duplicitous. Their family name is not even Gandhi, (but) they keep their duplicate names. If someone has a duplicate license I can catch it, but I don’t know what if someone has a duplicate license. That’s why they’re roaming around,” he said. This set the tone for the next seven days, as several FIRs were filed against Gandhi and other Congress leaders in various police stations. The Assam Congress chief was attacked leaving injuries on his face, travel vehicles were attacked, posters and hoardings were torn down and a crowd chanting Jai Shri Ram came “dangerously close” to the Wayanad MP.
An FIR was lodged against the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ and its organizers like KB Byju, Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Bora and others on the very first day for deviating from its permitted route inside Jorhat city, leading to “chaotic situation”. Was born. In area. Jorhat police has already issued notices to the accused persons named in the FIR and asked them to appear before it on January 31.
Senior party leaders alleged that on January 20, Congress workers were attacked by miscreants in North Lakhimpur town, the district headquarters of Lakhimpur, their vehicles were damaged and all hoardings and posters of the yatra were destroyed. On January 21, Bora was punched by unidentified people, leaving his nose bleeding, while in another incident, party central leader Jairam Ramesh’s car was also attacked in Sonitpur district.
Ramesh posted on Twitter about the attack, claiming that an “unruly BJP mob” tore Yatra stickers from windshields, threw water and raised anti-Yara slogans. On the fifth day of the visit in Assam, Gandhi was stopped from visiting Batadrava Thana – the birthplace of the great man Srimanta Sankardeva in Bardova. He sat on the road, sang bhajans with artistes and argued with police officials, who surprisingly allowed other Congress leaders to visit the holy place.
However, the point of contention reached Guwahati when Congress workers broke police barricades in the presence of Gandhi and other leaders, who were threatened by Sarma that an FIR would be filed if the yatra attempted to enter the main city. Party workers clashed with police, who resorted to mild lathicharge to control the situation. Several policemen and party workers were injured in the clash.
After removing the barriers, however, the Congress workers did not proceed further with Gandhi saying that they “can break the barricades, but will not break the law” and moved through their permitted route along NH-27 in Guwahati. This incident forced the Chief Minister to term the action as “Naxalite” style and directed the police to register a case. Guwahati Police filed a suo motu FIR against Gandhi and other leaders for “unruly acts of violence”.
Sarma even announced that the “instigators” including Gandhi would be arrested after the Lok Sabha elections as he did not want to “politicize” the issue before the general elections. On the final day, Gandhi, in the home constituency of AIUDF MP Badruddin Ajmal, termed him and his party as the “B team” of the BJP and alleged that the two help each other during elections.
The series of incidents led Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge to write to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing the Assam Police of being a mute spectator and requested for proper security during the yatra. The yatra led by Rahul Gandhi began from Manipur on January 14 and will conclude in Mumbai on March 20.
The Assam leg of the march, which began on January 18 and ended on Thursday, covered 833 km across 17 districts. The yatra plans to cover a distance of 6,713 kilometers in 67 days, passing through 110 districts in 15 states.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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