The Congress will follow all COVID-related guidelines, but the Bharat Jodo Yatra will not be stopped, senior party leader Salman Khurshid said on Thursday.
His statement came after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot asking them to consider suspending the march if COVID-19 protocols could not be followed.
'Government is scared of Congress, yatra will not stop'
"The Congress will follow all the precautions related to the prevention of Covid, but the yatra will not stop, will not stop, will not stop," Kurshid, the yatra's coordination committee chairman in Uttar Pradesh, told reporters here. He was answering a question on whether the letter will affect the march.
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In a democratic system, every party and individual has the right to speak their mind, the former union minister said. "The government is scared of this Congress yatra, that is why various orders and letters are being issued," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh lashed out at the BJP-led central government for having sent the letter to Gandhi even before PM Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting to review the situation related to Covid-19 in the country, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
He highlighted that the yatra will enter Delhi on December 24 and the government was finding excuses to obstruct the same.
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Bharat Jodo yatra
Khurshid informed that Rahul Gandhi-led yatra will enter Uttar Pradesh from Ghaziabad's Loni area on January 3. "After that it will enter Haryana via Baghpat and Shamli," he added.
The Yatra, a mass contact initiative of the Congress, started from Kanyakumari on September 7 and has covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
(With inputs from PTI)
