Uttar Pradesh has been a rough terrain for the Congress for long but streetlights on the blink and uncommon prohibitory orders linked to birth anniversaries were not among the hurdles till now.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra appears to have changed that.
The Congress alleged on Thursday that the administration in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh switched off street lights before daybreak to make the Yatris walk in darkness and also prevented people from joining the march.
Akhilesh Singh, a Congress spokesperson walking with Rahul Gandhi, told The Telegraph over the phone from Shamli in Uttar Pradesh: “The government is harassing people who want to join our Yatra and also creating hurdles on our way. The street lights were on when Rahul reached Mavi Kalan in Baghpat (district, adjoining Shamli) at 5.30am on Wednesday to continue his journey. However, there was a complete blackout when he started at 6.15am. We walked for about an hour and a half in the dark before daybreak.”
He said Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed in Shamli on Wednesday night “to terrorise” the Yatris. Section 144 prohibits gatherings of four or more people in public places. The Yatra was not stopped through the day.
Jasjeet Kaur, the district magistrate of Shamli, denied any foul play and told reporters that the prohibitory orders had been issued in view of the birth anniversary of Hazrat Ali, the first Shia imam, on Thursday and Maha Shivaratri on February 18.
However, administrative officials could not recall the last time when Section 144 had been imposed in view of Hazrat Ali’s birth anniversary. They said prohibitory orders were issued during major outdoor events in Uttar Pradesh as a preventive measure but Hazrat Ali’s birth anniversary was usually marked inside mosques.
DM Kaur also did not explain why Section 144 needed to be imposed more than a month before Maha Shivaratri.
Singh, the Congress spokesperson, said hoardings and banners that had been put up in view of the Yatra were “damaged by unidentified people”. He alleged that police stopped people from joining the Yatra in Shamli on Thursday.
“The police are preventing people from joining the Yatra. They are being stopped 10 to 15km from the roads through which Rahul is passing. Still, thousands of people are coming, taking lanes that cut through agricultural fields. All tea and snacks shops have been forcibly shut by the police so that we face problems,” Singh said.
Brijesh Pathak, deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, denied the allegations of harassment of the Yatris and those who wanted to join in.
“Nobody is stopping Rahul from conducting his Yatra, but we want to ask him to clarify his stand on India’s partition and the Emergency, which was imposed by Indira Gandhi, his grandmother, to terrorise the country,” Pathak said.
Rahul said the common man was living in fear and the purpose of the Bharat Jodo Yatra was to remove this fear from their minds.
“The common man is in fear because of the way communal tension has been created in India by the ruling dispensation. The idea of the Bharat Jodo Yatra is to remove this fear from their minds and bring their attention to inflation and unemployment,” the Congress leader said at a wlic meeting in Shamli on Thursday, the third day of the Yatra in Uttar Pradesh.
Rahul criticised the role of the media, which he said was not airing the voice of the poor people.
“The media is asking me why I am in a T-shirt in this winter. They are talking about my T-shirt but they are not able to see thousands of people — children of poor farmers and labourers — walking with me without a sweater or a jacket in this season,” Rahul said.
He took a brief break from the Yatra in Jidana village and interacted with a Muslim family there for about half an hour.
Later, Jahid Hasan, the head of the family, said: “The Congress leaders asked us about our well-being, our happiness and sorrow. He (Rahul) had tea with us and continued with his journey.
“He was with us for about 30 minutes. I have been in touch with the Nehru-Gandhi family for the past many years. I often visit Delhi and meet them but this was the first time he was here. I had never thought such a good thing would happen to us.”