Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the RSS-BJP leaders questioning the need for the Bharat Jodo Yatra would get their answer if they walked for five minutes with the common people.

“There is fear everywhere. Fear because of the politics of hate, fear because of an uncertain future. Youth are in fear because of unemployment; farmers are in fear because they don’t get the right price.... This fear is harnessed by the RSS-BJP to sustain their politics of hate,” Rahul told a rally at Shegaon in Maharashtra.

Mahatma Gandhi’s great-grandson Tushar Gandhi, who walked with Rahul, said at the rally: “Narendra Modi hides the slums with cloth to avoid the ugly sight. Rahul embraces the poor. The true leader has the capacity to feel the pain of the poor.... Bapu felt the pain of the poor. I saw the same while walking with Rahul Gandhi today. I never imagined I will have this experience in my lifetime.”

Several Yatris have over the past two months invoked Gandhi’s Dandi March as an inspiration.

“Rate nahin milta (We don’t get the right price for our crops). Tang aa gaya hun ye sunkar (I am frustrated hearing this). Every single farmer tells me the same thing. They ask me why farmers should commit suicide for debts of Rs 50,000 or Rs 1 lakh when corporate loans worth lakhs of crores are written off by the government. The rulers need to listen to the poor. This is not the time for Mann Ki Baat,” said Rahul, who has walked around 2,000km already and met countless people on his journey that started in Kanyakumari on September 7.

Amid a raging debate in Maharashtra on his comments about Sangh icon V.D. Savarkar, Rahul kept the focus on the financial struggle of the poor which has not become the subject of debate in the country.

Amid a raging debate in Maharashtra on his comments about Sangh icon V.D. Savarkar, Rahul kept the focus on the financial struggle of the poor which has not become the subject of debate in the country.

“The Bharat Jodo Yatra is doing what the great icons and saints of Maharashtra taught us. Shivaji Maharaj, Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai Phule, Sahuji Maharaj, Ambedkar, Holkar, Gadge Maharaj, Dnyaneshwar Maharaj, Shirdi Saibaba… there is a long list. Maharashtra has been a land of reformers. None of these great personalities taught us to spread hatred. They all taught us love and unity,” Rahul said. Savarkar had propagated a narrow political agenda that sought to project Muslims as the “other”.

Over the past two days, the local media had played up Rahul’s comments quoting Savarkar as telling the British authorities in a petition for mercy that he begged to remain their “obedient servant”.

Maharashtra Congress leaders Ashok Chavan, Nana Patole and Balasaheb Thorat spoke of the importance of the Yatra and said no other current leader could have undertaken it. They hailed Rahul’s compassion and said he met the poor with affection, heard them out and even wiped their tears.