The final leg of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s national Bharat Jodo Yatra will begin on Thursday when he arrives in Jammu and Kashmir. From January 19 to 30, Gandhi’s yatra will travel through J&K. At around 5:45 PM today, Gandhi—who is currently in Punjab—will arrive in Kathua.
Gandhi’s arrival in J&K comes the day after Deepika Pushkar Nath, the UT’s spokesperson, announced her resignation from the party. Tuesday, Nath announced her resignation via Twitter, citing the party’s unit in the Union Territory’s decision to “allow” former minister Choudhary Lal Singh to participate in the Yatra. Singh received criticism in the past for taking part in a protest in support of those charged with the 2018 rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kathua.
The Rahul Gandhi-led “Bharat Jodo Yatra” entered Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday morning after spending six days in Punjab. Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, the president of the Punjab Congress, presented the flag to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and state Congress chief Pratibha Singh after the march entered the state close to the village of Ghatota. Gandhi received praise from CM Sukhu and Pratibha Singh for including the hill state in the yatra even though it was not originally planned to be.
Shadow of the Kathua case on the Bharat Jodo Yatra: J&K Congress leader resigns over participation by the Dogra leader
Congress spokesperson Deepika Pushkar Nath has resigned in protest against the party accepting the proposal of Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan founder Choudhary Lal Singh to join the foot march at Lakhanpur, where the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) is set to enter the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
She stated that she was leaving the party on “ideological grounds” and claimed that Lal Singh, a former state minister, was in charge of “sabotaging the legal case” in the 2018 gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old Bakerwali tribal girl in the forests of Rasana in Kathua district, “by brazenly defending” the rapists and murderers.
“In view of Ch Lal Singh’s proposal of joining @bharatjodo & @INCJammuKashmir allowing the same, I am left with no other option but to resign from @INCIndia(.) Lal Singh was responsible in sabotaging the Kathua rape case in 2018 by brazenly defending rapists,” Deepika Pushkar Nath wrote on Twitter. “Lal Singh divided the entire region of Jammu & Kashmir to protect the rapists and @bharatjodo is ideologically opposite [sic]. On ideological grounds, I cannot share the party platform with such a person,” she wrote.
As a lawyer, Deepika had fought for a trial investigation on behalf of the victim’s parents in the J&K High Court. Additionally, she had taken the defendant before the Supreme Court, pleading for the trial to be moved from J&K to Pathankot in neighbouring Punjab.
The Chenab Times News Desk