Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed the public gathering at Palakkad, Kerala, today.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said- I would like to thank every single person who has walked with the Bharat Jodo Yatra till today. Every single day more and more people are joining this yatra, more and more people are giving their energy to the ideas behind the yatra and what are the ideas behind this yatra? Three very simple ideas and all these three ideas are linked to each other like a chain.

The first idea is that we will not accept an India that is divided, that is full of hatred that is violent. We will not accept an India that goes against the principles of leaders like Narayana Guru Ji, who said that it is important that we respect and love all living beings. Narayana Guru Ji did not teach us to kill people. He did not teach us to hate people. He did not teach us to divide this country.

He taught us humility, love, affection, compassion and these are the values that make Kerala and India great and anybody who tries to create hatred and anger in India is attacking the National Flag. It doesn’t matter who they are, if they make Indian hate Indian, if they make Indians act violently against Indian, they are against the idea of India. It does not matter which language they speak, which religion they belong to, which state they live in, which community they come from, if they spread hatred and violence in India, they are attacking the idea of India.

The second idea behind the Bharat Jodo Yatra is, we will not accept an India where millions and millions and millions of youngsters cannot get a job, and have been forced to live unemployed. We will not accept an India where a university degree is not worth the paper it is written on because it cannot get you a job. We will not accept an India where PhD students, postgraduate, graduate cannot get themselves a job, where their families are drowning because of high prices, an India where the biggest businessmen can get much of their loans waived off but our farmers, labourers, small businessmen are called defaulters and are put in jail if they do not pay back the bank loans.

We are not ready to accept an India where a few people can dream, whatever dream they want to dream and a large majority of people have to live a nightmare and this is the reason such large numbers are coming to this yatra. There is a river of people flowing through Kerala, after this river will flow through Karnataka and Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, all the way through the country.

I have been walking with this river and I have been seeing that this river is affectionate, humble and loving. All communities are walking together. If a lady falls down, five or six people pick her up. If a Hindu person falls down, they do not ask him, they pick him up, Muslim brothers pick him up, Christian brothers pick him up. If a Muslim brother, a Christian brother falls down, nobody asks are you Muslim, are you Christian, they pick him up. Nobody in this river is telling women what they should wear or what they should not wear. Everybody is walking peacefully, lovingly and affectionately.

This river (Pointing towards large gathering of people) is the true nature of India. A river that flows with humility, with respect, nonviolently, but gets whatever it needs to get done, that is the true nature of our beautiful country and the true nature of this beautiful state and that is what the yatra is trying to put across.

Hatred and anger are not useful. So this river is the true nature of our country. Now what the BJP and the RSS want is that this river gets divided, that this river the people within this river fight and kill each other. They insult each other. They want a river, where if somebody falls, nobody picks him up; a river, where everybody is alone. If somebody falls and gets hurt, nobody bandages him and that is the way they run their government. They divide the country, they spread hatred and they attack the people of India using policies like demonetisation, like GST, like the farm laws.

They want an India where the second richest man in the world is an Indian, and at the same time, when the second richest man is an Indian, they want an India where nobody can get a job. They want an India where poor people have to face unbearable prices, thousand rupees for a gas cylinder.

Brothers and sisters, money doesn’t disappear. During the UPA times, a gas cylinder used to cost Rs. 400. Today, it costs Rs. 1,000. I want every housewife tonight in Kerala, when she lights the stove, to ask herself where has Rs. 600 gone. In whose pocket has the Rs. 600 gone? When you fill fuel in your scooter, in your motorcycle, in your car, ask yourself: the money that is coming out of my pocket, in whose pocket is it going? The answer is simple, it is going into the pocket of the five or six richest businessmen in this country and this unfairness is not acceptable. That is why we are doing this yatra and I thank you for all the energy and the love and affection you have given us. You are making it easy for us to walk till the other end of this country.