Rahul Gandhi addressed the people at High school junction, Karungapplly, Kerala, today.
Shri Rahul Gandhi said- Thank you for the tremendous support that everybody has given to the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ today.
Lakhs of people walked with us, children, adults, senior citizens, men, women, lakhs of people today gave us support. I could see many people getting pushed, even some people getting hurt, but then again standing up and coming back and walking. Even some senior citizens, they got pushed, fell down and then stood up and started walking again. So I thank all the people of Kerala who have supported this yatra as if it is their own yatra.
Of course, many of our workers, many Congress people are walking, but, so are many, many others. They are walking because they understand deeply the idea behind the Bharat Jodo Yatra. They understand deeply what is being done to their beautiful country. They can see the hatred that is being spread by the BJP and the RSS.
They can see how the BJP-RSS makes one brother fight against another brother to come to power, divides people along religious lines, along community lines, along language lines, treats males and females completely differently, they can see all this.
For the RSS, the women of India are second-class citizens. They do not have the right to express themselves. They have a role that the RSS believes they can define. The people of Kerala and people of India understand that this is harming the nation. They understand that a family that fights within itself is a weak family.
They know when brother fights brother, the family is weak and in the same way they understand deeply that when Indian fights Indian, Indian hates Indian, India becomes weak.
And that is why millions of people are joining this yatra to say to the BJP, to the RSS, that we will not allow you to divide this country. We will not allow you to weaken this country and that is why ‘Bharat Jodo’. And a lot of the thought behind Bharat Jodo comes from the great leaders of Kerala. This is not a new idea.
This is not a 21st century idea, this idea was spoken about by Shri Narayana Guru Ji, by Chattampi Swami Ji, by Mahatma Ayyankali Ji. They all believed in the idea of Bharat Jodo.
Why Bharat Jodo? Because when there is no harmony in our country, there can be no progress. Imagine, a family, which is fighting within itself, that family cannot progress, that family has to get destroyed. You look at any successful family, you will find that there is harmony in that family.
There is love and affection in that family. There is partnership in that family. From love, affection and a partnership that family gets a vision, a way to look at the future.
In the same way, a country that is full of hatred, a country that is full of anger, cannot have a vision for the future. It is impossible. It is very easy to spread hatred. You can abuse anybody and you will generate hatred. You can say something negative about anybody, you will generate hatred. You beat somebody, you generate hatred, but, you will not move forward. You will not get progress. Kerala will not get the roads, it needs, the jobs it needs, it simply will not happen. So, Kerala and India both need harmony to have a vision.
What is being the result of the anger and the hatred that the BJP has spread? The highest level of unemployment India has ever seen. I have been walking the streets, now of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Whenever a youngster comes to me, I ask them what they do. Half of them say they do nothing and the other half say they are not happy with what they are doing. The second richest man in the world is an Indian. You must have read in the newspapers that an Indian person now is the second richest man in the world.
He is a close associate of the leader of this country. He controls most of the businesses in the country- air ports, ports, power plants, agriculture, roads. I want to ask you a simple question, if India has the second richest man in the world, why does that same country have the highest unemployment in the world? Why is it there are a few people who are the wealthiest in the world and then there are millions and millions and millions of people who are jobless?
Do not think that these two things are not connected. They are connected. The reason that millions of people don’t have a job is because the government is interested in only protecting and supporting the richest 5 or 6 business people in this country.
All public sector companies, one by one by one, are being divested, privatised. Millions of people are going to loose their jobs as these companies are privatised. Who are these companies going to go to? They are going to go to the same 5 or 6 business people, whom everything else goes to.
At the same time, while you don’t have jobs, you have massive price rise. Petrol prices keep going up, diesel prices keep going up. Today, I spoke to some youngsters, who do delivery work on their scooters. I asked them what is their biggest problem, they said our biggest problem is petrol prices. Our second big problem is the roads in Kerala. I asked them, what is the problem with the roads? And they said the roads are badly designed and driving on these roads, we always have a backache.
Young boys! So, not only do they have to pay higher fuel prices, soon they will have to pay hospital bills. So they have been hit from all sides, auto rickshaw drivers, people who do delivery work, truck drivers, bus drivers, from every side they get hit, fuel prices go up, the roads are bad. In the end they are the ones who pay the price.
But, the main thing to understand is that there is a connection between hatred in society and progress. There is a connection between hatred and the RSS and the BJP. The RSS and BJP are designed to benefit a limited number of people. They are designed to concentrate wealth in the country. They cannot concentrate wealth in the country, if the country is in harmony, its people are happy and not fighting each other.
The British used to do exactly this- divide the country and then take what belongs to the people of the country and give it to a few selected people. That is exactly what the BJP and the RSS are doing. That is why we are doing the Bharat Jodo Yatra, so that we can bring people together and then solve these problems that you are facing.
This Yatra is called Bharat Jodo Yatra, it is about bringing people together, it is about creating harmony in society, but, most importantly, once we bring people together and create harmony then it is about solving the unemployment problem and the price problem that you are facing.
Today and yesterday, I met cashew workers and they are facing the same problem everybody else is facing, but, it is extremely acute that business has simply evaporated, disappeared….(video missing) work in this industry. I have committed to them that I will raise their issue in the Lok Sabha. But I would also like to ask the Government of Kerala to be a little sensitive to their requirements. There is a lot that the Government of Kerala can do and I am not saying this in an offensive manner and I am not saying it in a critical manner.
One or two days ago, I mentioned about the problem of Kerala has with their roads and I am happy that one of the members of the government has accepted that there is a problem with the standards of roads. I hope that the government comes up with standards that will improve the roads of Kerala. So in the same way, they should take this suggestion, please there is a lot that the government of Kerala can do for lakhs and lakhs of cashew workers. We will also raise it in the Lok Sabha.
Once again, I would like to thank every single person who has supported this yatra and, even more important, supported the ideas behind this yatra of bringing this country together, of bringing this state together and following on the path that was shown to us by the great leaders of Kerala Narayana Guru Ji, Chattampi Swami Ji and Mahatma Ayyankali Ji.
And for me, now I have been walking for quite a few days in your beautiful state and for me it is an honour to be walking on your streets and it is an honour for me to see the affection that you are giving me.
I thought that walking across India would be quite a difficult thing but I am finding that with your support, it is quite an easy thing. It is almost as if something is pushing you from behind. So I would like to thank you for that very much.
