Mehbooba Mufti Praises Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, PDP Undecided On Joining In J&K: Here’s What We Know!

Mehbooba Mufti responded to a query regarding the yatra by stating that Rahul Gandhi undertook the journey to enhance the nation’s legacy of “secularism, fraternity, freedom, and democracy.” Mehbooba Mufti, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, praised Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, on Monday for embarking on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, but her party, the People’s Democratic Party, is still debating whether or not to participate when it enters the Union Territory from Punjab next month.

“We salute him (Rahul Gandhi) for having shown the courage to undertake the yatra at a time when this legacy of the country is weakened by the present government,” she stated. “Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) had sacrificed his life for communal brotherhood and it is a good thing that Rahul Gandhi has undertaken the yatra to keep it up,’’ she added.

When the PDP leader noticed the Congress leader paying a visit to the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s memorial, she said, “It has been the uniqueness of this country that one respects one’s opponents whether living or dead. Unfortunately, the present government has shaken all the foundations in the last eight years.”

When approached, senior PDP figures stated that the party had not yet made a judgment on the issue.“It depends on how things shape up when the yatra enters J&K,’’ said a PDP leader. “We also have to see that our joining the yatra does not provide a tool to the BJP to damage the noble cause for which Rahul Gandhi has undertaken the 3,500-km cross-country march,” the leader mentioned.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra, which covers a distance of more than 3,500 kilometres over the period of around 150 days, started on September 7 in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, and will end in Srinagar. Farooq Abdullah, a former chief minister, has already declared that he will join Gandhi’s yatra when it enters the UT, claiming that “unity and integrity of the country is the need of the hour.”

Former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, former minister Manohar Lal Sharma, and former MLA Balwan Singh, all recently expelled leaders of the Ghulam Nabi Azad-led Democratic Azad Party, have also indicated that they intend to participate in the yatra in Lakhanpur.

According to sources, the yatra is likely to be welcomed by politicians of all stripes in J&K, with the exception of groups affiliated with the Sangh Parivar. Choudhary Lal Singh, the president of the Dogra Swabhiman Sangathan and a former minister who switched from the Congress to the BJP before the 2014 Assembly elections before launching his own party four years later, is also eager to participate in the yatra there.