Pawan Khera and Manish Khanduri
Karnataka Massive!
The afternoon started hot and temperatures rose quickly. But just as rapidly there were overcast skies as soon as the walkers got underway. And what a walk it was! It seemed that Karnataka was giving a massive farewell to the Yatris in what is the last day in the state.
Kilometre after kilometre of excited crowds singing, dancing and cheering on the marchers. “At times such was the crowd that it was difficult to even walk” says Sachin Dwivedi, Yatri. It seemed that Karnataka had decided on giving the #BharatJodoYatra a grand farewell.
Sachin Dwivedi (right) took some time off from the frantic pace today to spend some quality time with the locals
Earlier in the afternoon Congress MP Rahul Gandhi interacted with local farmers and representatives of the Backward caste community. During the interaction with the farming community representatives demanded enforcement of MSP and a partnership between the government and local farmers to de-silt the Tungabhadra Dam. The farmers also stated that private sector insurance companies were colluding with government officials to drastically reduce or delay payouts in case of crop failure.
Responding to their demands, Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress Party had proposed a scheme called NYAY in in its 2019 General Election Manifesto as a means of supporting poor families including farmers.
Speaking at a corner meeting at the end of the day Gandhi stated that the Bharat Jodo Yatris “Walked every day for six to seven hours, from morning till evening, to listen to the concerns of people.” He added “We speak for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, (but the rest of the time) we hear the concerns of farmers, labourers, small businesses, women, and diverse sections of society.” As a description of one of the core objectives of Yatra, we couldn’t have phrased it better.
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is a five month, 3500 kilometre long padyatra from Kanyakumari in the South of India to Kashmir up in the North. It is part of the party’s national mass outreach program aimed at highlighting social polarisation, economic inequalities and political centralisation.
Ground research: Aparna Ashwarya (INC Communications Department research team)
End of Day Travel Facts
1. Current District Names – Kurnool, Raichur
2. The struggle for liberation against the Britishers in Kurnool goes back to the 1800s. Leaders like Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy, Muthukukr Gowdappa and Nawab Rasool Khan, the last Nawab of Kurnool fought against the British East India Company
3. The district is known for the Kurnool Circular issued by the Kurnool District Congress Committee during the Quit India Movement,1942. Since leadership was preemptively arrested by the British. the Kurnool circular served as a guiding pathway for the people during the movement.
4. Kurnool city, the district headquarters, is referred to as the Gateway of Rayalaseema.
5. The famous Hatti Gold mines are located in Raichur district. The mine This mine is considered to be one of the oldest metal mines in the world
6. Raichur district is known as the cotton bowl of Karnataka, India.
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