Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) will embark on a ‘Karawan-e-Ittehad aur Bhaichara Yatra’ (Caravan of unity and procession of brotherhood) across Bihar, with an eye on votes, especially those belonging to the minority community, for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The yatra will start on Tuesday (August 1) from Narkatiaganj, a place close to the Bhitiharwa Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in the West Champaran district. It will end on September 6 at Bhagalpur, a place inhabited by the Pasmanda Muslims (the nomenclature for the extremely backward among the Muslims) in large numbers and infamous for the 1989 communal riots.
JDU member of legislative council (MLC) Khalid Anwar will lead the yatra, which will cross 27 out of total 38 districts in the state. People from the districts not touched by the yatra will be invited to join it in their neighbouring districts.
Interestingly, JDU flag will not be used in the yatra. It will instead use pictures of Gandhi, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Vallabhbhai Patel, Abul Kalam Azad and Nitish, instead, as well as, a slogan “Tareekh ko bachayein, Nitish Kumar ke saath aayein” (Save the history, come with Nitish Kumar).
“Our aim is to march to spread the message of peace, harmony, non-violence and brotherhood given by Mahatma Gandhi to counter the politics of hate being propagated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” Anwar told The Telegraph on the eve of the yatra.
“The BJP is sowing the seeds of hatred in the society and the country. Therefore we have come up with the slogan Tareekh ko bachayein, Nitish Kumar ke saath aayein. Nitish is a social reformer and a leader who has upheld harmony and secularism,” Anwar added.
The JDU MLC pointed out that Nitish had set-up a judicial commission on the Bhagalpur riots after coming to power in the state. It resulted in conviction and punishment of the people involved in the riots, hence Bhagalpur, which is also famous for its weavers and silk industry, has been chosen as the place to end the yatra.
According to the schedule of the yatra, four to five public meetings will be held in every district it will pass through. It will also focus on gathering the intelligentsia of the area, Muslim and Hindu priests, doctors, and people working in other sectors to discuss the present condition of the country and the society.
“We will tell the people how Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre is destroying the Ganga-Jamuni culture of the country, and making people turn on each other in the name of religion, caste and community in its lust for power,” JDU state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha said.
Sources in the JDU pointed out that the yatra will position Nitish as the topmost leader in Bihar and position him as a person fit for the post of the Prime Minister of the country.
Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats. The JDU had won 16 of them as part of the National Democratic Alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
