 "Congress leader Rahul Gandhi")
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted the Narendra Modi-led Union government over demonetisation, unemployment and the politics of hatred as his Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its 62nd day.
The Congress MP also visited a Gurudwara in Maharashtra's Nanded district, hours after entering the state from Telangana.
The Yatra was, however, marred by the death of a senior functionary of the Congress Seva Dal during the day.
Tuesday was the sixth anniversary of the Modi government's decision to withdraw Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes in 2016.
Speaking at Biloli in Nanded district, the Congress leader said demonetisation and the 'faulty' implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) wrecked the backbone of those who provide employment, that is, farmers and small-and-medium businesses.
The fact is that note-ban was not a move for eliminating black money. It was an attack on small merchants, small and medium businesses and farmers. Every poor person is reeling under that impact even today, he said.
Gandhi also alleged that education and healthcare systems were being privatised.
The youth in the country can go to schools and colleges, get educated, but they will not get employment. They spend years studying engineering, (but) they don't become engineers, they end up as labourers, drivers. This is India's reality, he said.
The BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh turned the fear created by this situation into hatred, Gandhi further claimed.
They are setting one brother against another, one language against another, one caste against another caste and one religion against another religion. And then they say they are patriots. You are the patriot of which country? You are not the patriot of this country, the Congress leader said.
In the morning, the Congress MP visited Gurdwara Yaadgari Baba Zoravar Singh ji Fateh Singh ji on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti.
As Gandhi resumed his march, he was flanked by senior Maharashtra Congress leaders including former chief ministers Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan, state party chief Nana Patole, and other leaders like Balasaheb Thorat, Manikrao Thakre and Naseem Khan.
"No force can stop this yatra" that began on September 7 from Kanniyakumari (Tamil Nadu) and will culminate in Srinagar, Gandhi said.
Congress was the dominant political force in Maharashtra for several decades, and a constituent of the three-party ruling coalition till June this year.
The march will pass through 15 Assembly and six parliamentary constituencies in Maharashtra. It will cover a distance of 382 km across five districts before entering Madhya Pradesh on November 20.
Speaking about the journey so far, Gandhi said even though they have covered more than 3,600 km, it felt like they had only just started.
"There is neither any sense of tiredness after waking up in the morning nor is there tiredness after walking 25 kilometres (every day).
"We don't use our energy, we are using your energy. Your love pushes us to march ahead. And this will take us to Srinagar," he said.
Gandhi will resume his yatra from Biloli on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Seva Dal general secretary Krishna Kumar Pandey, a resident of Nagpur, died during the Yatra on Tuesday.
While walking with senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and others, Pandey felt shortness of breath and uneasiness, a senior district official said.
Pandey was taken in an ambulance to Shankar Nagar primary health facility where doctors declared him dead.
Gandhi expressed grief over the death.
"His dedication towards the country will keep inspiring up," Gandhi said, while extending condolences to Pandey's family.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
