New Delhi: Upbeat over the overwhelming response to Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s aggressive speech in the House on July 1, which rattled the ruling NDA, the Congress plans to take its message across the country over the coming days.
As part of the drive, the grand old party is planning ‘Save Constitution’ yatras in poll-bound states Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir and is likely to publicise posters of Rahul Gandhi showing a picture of Lord Shiva to the treasury benches in the House on Monday.
“A beginning has been made. Rahul Gandhi’s speech in the Lok Sabha rattled the NDA and has been appreciated by the people across the country. Now his message must be taken across the country by the party. People should be educated about the history and traditions of our country and the idea of an inclusive India,” Congress Working Committee member Ghulam Ahmed Mir told ETV Bharat.
Accordingly, the AICC has instructed the state units to publicise the central ideas of Rahul’s speech, particularly the BJP trying to distort his remarks on Hindus by holding pressers across the state capitals over the coming days. The party would also publicise video clips of Rahul’s ‘Hindus are not violent’ remark to counter the saffron party propaganda.
While the Haryana unit has planned a state-wide campaign 'Jai Samvidhan' to counter the BJP over Speaker Om Birla’s rebuke to Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda, the Maharashtra unit is also mulling the idea.
“The Haryana Congress will launch a state-wide drive to showcase the supremacy of the Constitution ahead of the Assembly polls in November,” AICC in-charge Haryana Dipak Babaria told ETV Bharat.
The state unit was upset over the Speaker's rebuke to Deepender, who had asked the Chair if party MP Shashi Tharoor saying “Jai Samvidhan” after taking his oath was wrong. Hooda was responding to the Speaker’s terse reaction as he told Tharoor that he was after all taking an oath of the Constitution. When Hooda raised a query, the Speaker rebuked him as well.
After a few days, the Rohtak MP took out a thanksgiving yatra in his constituency where he held a copy of the Constitution amid chants of “Jai Samvidhan’ by the supporters.
“The Maharashtra unit may also start a yatra on ‘Jai Samvidhan’. The state team will plan a drive to publicise Rahul Gandhi’s message and flag the issues that he raised. All of them are genuine issues related to farmers, women and youth that we raised during the Lok Sabha polls and the people responded to them. We will carry forward the message ahead of the Assembly polls in November,” AICC secretary in-charge of Maharashtra Ashish Dua told ETV Bharat.
Rahul Gandhi, who assumed a Constitutional post for the first time in his 20-year-long parliamentary career, recently articulated his vision saying he was a people’s LoP and would always keep their interest ahead.
To live up to his words, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha will now open up personal space and have more interactions with members of the media, social media platforms and engage in off-the-record chats with the commoners over the coming days, said party insiders.
“Rahul Gandhi now represents the voice of the common people who see hope in him. That is why he is getting such nationwide attention which has worried the BJP,” added Dua.
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