Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed on Monday that the opposition party was forced to undertake the 3500-km foot march after it was not allowed to speak on the pressing public issues in Parliament.
He slammed the BJP government at the Centre for demonetisation, “hasty implementation” of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the recently launched Agniveer scheme.
Gandhi alleged that the government is “facilitating” flight of money into the coffers of a few corporators and ruining the small businesses across the country.
“Democracy in the country is under attack which is a major challenge for the nation. Before the commencement of the Yatra, we tried to raise the issues like demonetisation, GST, farmers’ bill and China’s aggression in Parliament, both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, but we were not allowed and the mikes were being switched off,” the former Congress president told a gathering at Satwari chowk here.
Rahul reached Jammu on the 129th day of the Yatra after resuming from Vijaypur in Samba district in the morning, covering over 20 kilometres in six-and-a-half hours. After a night stay in Sidhra, the Yatra is scheduled to leave for Kashmir and it will enter there after Republic Day.
“We have come to open the shops of love in the markets of hatred. With this Yatra, we could see lakhs and crores of people have opened their shops of love, braving rains, cold and hot weather.” He said the people from all walks of life including farmers, small traders, women and children shared their pain with him across different states during the Yatra and they all live together with love in this country.
With inputs from News18
