Rahul Gandhi’s advice to party leaders: ‘Walk 15 km a month, get bruises on knees, connect with people’

Jaipur: After 17 days, Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra left Rajasthan on Wednesday and entered Haryana.

At the flag handover ceremony at Ferozepur Jhirka in Haryana’s Nuh district bordering Rajasthan, Rahul Gandhi bid farewell to the leaders of the desert state by hugging them warmly.

In his address, the Congress leader once again instructed the leaders to stay on the ground and remain connected with the common people.

“I would like to appeal to (Congress President) Mallikarjun Kharge that wherever Congress government is formed, the leaders of that place should be among the public. The leaders should experience the push and fall, their knees should be bruised so that they can understand the pain of the common people who in turn can connect with them,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi also hugged all the state leaders present on the stage one by one. First, he bid farewell to Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra, followed by Sachin Pilot, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other leaders.

“I would like to tell Kharge ji that this model of ministers walking 15 km once a month in every Congress-ruled state should be repeated. Wherever Congress government is formed, the ministers, MLAs and party leaders should walk on the road for at least one day in a month,” the Congress leader said.

“Other leaders make hour-long speeches, we speak for 15 minutes. We do not give long speeches while travelling. The journey starts at 6 a.m. (in Bharat Jodo Yatra), we walk for six to seven hours and then give speech for 15 minutes. Nowadays there is a gap between leaders and the public. Leaders think that there is no need to listen to the public, just give long speeches for hours. Our journey is trying to change that. We walk for seven to eight hours and all the leaders listen to the farmers, labourers, youth and small shopkeepers.

“The leaders of Rajasthan are sitting here. Ashok Gehlot, Govind Dotsara, Sachin Pilot, Harish Chowdhary… all are here. Look at their faces. There is no tiredness,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi also said that BJP leaders often ask what is the need of Bharat Jodo Yatra.

“What is the need to walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir? It is meant to open a shop of love in the market of hatred. Whenever these people (BJP) go out to spread hatred in this country, people of our ideology start spreading love. This fight is not new, this fight is thousands of years old. There are two ideologies… one that selectively benefits people, the second is the voice of the people. It is the voice of the farmers, the labourers…,” the Congress leader said.

–IANS