BJP calls for boycott of Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab

BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said that Congress’s anti-Sikh sentiment has not washed away, and has only flourished and nourished with the passage of time.

Ahead of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra, or ‘unite India march’ slated to start in Punjab, the BJP has urged the people of Punjab to boycott the ‘Yatra’, blaming the Congress of adopting an anti-Sikh and anti-Punjab attitude over the years.

BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill on January 10, 2023 said that Congress’s anti-Sikh sentiment has not washed away, and has only flourished and nourished with the passage of time. “While on one hand the country is witnessing the BJP honouring the Sikh community, respecting their sentiments by dedicating December 26 (martyrdom day of Char Sahibzadas) as ‘Veer Bal Diwas’, opening of Kartarpur Corridor and securing Sri Guru Granth Sahib safely from war-torn Afghanistan, on the other hand the Congress has been openly crowning those responsible for the anti Sikh riots in 1984. Being anti-Sikh is the true character of the Congress party,” he said in a statement.

Terming the Yatra as completely “directionless” and a “desperate attempt” of Rahul Gandhi to befool the people with his rhetoric and theatrics just for the lust for power, Mr. Shergill said that people of Punjab have not forgotten how the Congress demolished the highest religio-temporal seat (Golden Temple) of the Sikhs with tanks and mortars during Operation Bluestar.

He said Mr. Gandhi has no moral right to take out the ‘Yatra’ in Punjab when the Congress has spared no attempt to alienate the Sikh community. “I appeal to the people of Punjab to completely boycott the Yatra,” he said.

“The Bharat Jodo Yatra is nothing but an expensive PR stunt to keep Rahul Gandhi busy with no political returns whatsoever,” he said.

The march entered Punjab from Haryana on January 10, and Mr. Gandhi would be visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar on Tuesday before the Yatra begins its Punjab leg on Wednesday. Senior party leader Jairam Raesh in a tweet said “Day 116 —Bharat Jodo Yatra finishes Haryana leg in Ambala now. Tomorrow morning is Punjab leg. There can be no better way to begin that than with a pilgrimage to holiest Golden Temple in Amritsar. There’ll be no padyatra this afternoon so that Rahul Gandhi can pay his respects there.”