Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the Bharat Jodo Yatra was the quiet and determined voice of the Indian people against the politics of fear, hatred and division, requesting citizens to join in the spirit of “ahimsa and sadbhavna”.

After paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Badanavalu in Mysore district of Karnataka on the occasion of his birth anniversary, the Congress leader said the Bharat Jodo Yatra was a struggle against the same ideology that was responsible for the assassination of the Father of the Nation.

The Congress appeared to be consciously using the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti to remind the RSS-BJP of the inviolability of the constitutional spirit and the principle of non-violence.

Setting up a separate department for peace and non-violence in the Rajasthan government, chief minister Ashok Gehlot said: “Rahul’s Yatra is also aimed at establishing social harmony in the country. Why such an atmosphere in the country? Unless the governance doctrine is in tune with the constitutional spirit, unless there is commitment to rule of law, there will be problems.”

Gehlot added: “Unfortunately, the ideology of the incumbent government and its controlling organisation (RSS) doesn’t reflect the constitutional spirit. They don’t have the moral right to govern. You either don’t take oath of the Constitution, or govern on the basis of the core values of the Constitution. After taking oath, irrespective of our ideology, we have to enforce the constitutional principles. There is a sanctity of oath. Minorities are in fear. Every nook and corner of the country is tense.”

Rahul issued a statement, saying: “Today, on his 153rd birth anniversary, we are at the Badanavalu Khadi Gramodyoga Kendra that Mahatma Gandhi visited in 1927. We remember and pay our respects to that great son of India. Our remembering is made more poignant by the fact that we are on the 25th day of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a padyatra in which we are walking his path of ahimsa, unity, equality and justice.”

Rahul added: “Just as Gandhiji fought the British Raj, we are today embarked on a battle with the very ideology that killed Gandhi. This ideology has delivered inequality, divisiveness and the erosion of our hard-won freedoms in the past eight years. Against this politics of himsa and asatya, the Bharat Jodo Yatra will spread the message of ahimsa and Swaraj from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.”

Arguing that “Swaraj” has many meanings, he explained: “It is the freedom from fear and want that our farmers, youth and small and medium enterprises desire. It is the freedom of our states to exercise their constitutional freedoms and of our villages to practice Panchayati Raj.

“It is also the conquest of the self, whether it is Bharat Yatris who are travelling 3,600km by foot or the lakhs of citizens who are walking with us for shorter periods. The Yatra is the quiet and determined voice of the Indian people against the politics of fear, hatred and division….”

Rahul said: “As we continue our journey from Mysuru to Kashmir, I request my fellow citizens across India to walk with us in the spirit of ahimsa and sadbhavna.”

The Congress leader pointed out that huge numbers of men and women who have participated in the Yatra so far believe that the values that Gandhi gave his life for and the constitutional rights are under threat.

Pointing to the perceived hypocrisy of the incumbent government, as it claims to follow Gandhi’s principles and gives patronage to those who support his assassin Nathuram Godse, Rahul said: “It might be convenient for those in power to appropriate Gandhiji’s legacy, but it is much more difficult to walk in his footsteps.”

Like every year, there was an attempt to trend Godse hashtags on Twitter with around a lakh tweets through the day. Most of those making such tweets appeared to be supporters of the current regime.