Srinagar: Amidst incessant snowfall, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi gave his concluding speech of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar where he called for promoting an "ideology of peace" against the "market of hatred" as the five-month-long foot march ended at Sher-e-Kashmir International Cricket Stadium here on Monday. Rahul recalling the painful moments of his grandmother and father's assassinations said that the Yatra was not for Congress but for the entire country to take inspiration from it and find an alternative to BJP-RSS ideology.
Clad in a tweed pheran (long flowing cloak worn by Kashmiris in winter), Rahul said, "I want to promote the ideology of peace. I didn't do this for the Congress party. I did it for the country. The ideology that is set to break the foundation of this country, we have set out against it". "We will not only defeat the divisive ideology but teach them to shun it. We are teaching the people that India is a country of love and peace," he added.
Making it apparent that the entire journey had an expression of love and peace, the Congress leader said, "I have tried to open a shop of love in the market of hatred and the people of Kashmir did not hand me hand grenades but hearts full of love". "I was warned that I might be attacked in Kashmir, but people here gave me only love," he added.
Rahul, who hardly went into any political narratives, wove his speech with little anecdotes that he has gathered in his 4000 kilometres long journey. "In my childhood days, my knee was badly injured while playing football. It had died down but eight days after the yatra started, my knee started to ache again and I was doubtful whether I could pass the test. At one point when I had almost given up when a little girl came to me and handed me a piece of paper and ran away," Rahul said.
The little girl had written - "You have pain in your knee, and it shows up. That is why I am walking with you. That day my pain evaporated," Rahul quipped. The Congress leader wavered from his school days to his family lacing his entire speech with myriad visions of personal experiences. Sharing his personal pains, Rahul Gandhi said that he and his family members understand the meaning of violence.
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"I want to tell security forces, CRPF personnel, BSF and Army people, and the youngsters of Kashmir, "I understand violence, I have endured it. Those who have not seen it, can't understand it like Modi ji, Amit Shah, and RSS people. They have not seen violence," he said. Narrating an incident when he was at school, the grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said, "One day I was summoned to the principal's office. There was a call from home. A woman working with my mother was on the phone. She said Rahul, Dadi (Indira Gandhi) ko mara hai (Grandmother is killed). Modi ji or Amit Shah or even Doval ji cannot understand what I am saying". "This can be understood by the people of Kashmir. By the personnel of CRPF and army".
Rahul Gandhi, continuing on with the legacy of sacrifice for the country, showed a phone to the audience and said, "This is not merely a phone for us. When six years later I was in the US, I got a call. A father's friend called me and said that "your papa (Rajiv Gandhi) has been killed". "This call is received by several army CRPF families. I understand what the families of the CRPF personnel killed in Pulwama felt when they got such a call. I want to stop these phone calls - calls that give a message of killings," Rahul said with snowflakes landing on his beard.
Reminiscing his glorious family legacy, the great-grandson of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said, "While on way to Kashmir, I thought about my relatives who also went down from this road (referring to his ancestors' migration from Kashmir to Allahabad). When my ancestors went from here to live on the banks of the Ganges, they spread the same message of Kashmiriyat in Uttar Pradesh.
"What you call Kashmiryat, I call it my home. Kashmiriyat is Shaivism on one side and Islam on the other side. This is sunyita (in Shaivism), this is fanaa (in Islam). My family spread the same message in Ganga," he said. "My family has taught me, Gandhi ji has taught me that if you have to live, you have to live with dignity. I had made a firm decision that if anyone wants to colour my T-shirt from white to red, let them do but I will walk".
Rahul's sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi lauded people for their tremendous support of the yatra which she described as a crusade against hatred and divisive forces. Turning teary-eyed at her brother's achievement, Priyanka said, "My brother walked for 4-5 months from Kanyakumari. Wherever they went, people came out for them. Why? Because there still remains a passion in this country-for the county, for this land, for its diversity that resides in the hearts of all Indians."
"When my brother was coming to Kashmir, he sent a message to my mother and me. He said he has a unique feeling of going home. He said his family members are waiting for him. They come and hug him with tears in their eyes and their pain and emotions are entering his own heart. Standing here, I can say that the politics going on in the country is something that can't benefit the nation. A politics that divides and breaks affects the nation. So, in a way, this was a spiritual yatra," Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, as she held an umbrella to shield herself from the heavy snow.
Kharge, taking over the dais at the beginning said Kashmir, which was paradise, has been converted into a Union Territory and the party will soon make it a state again. He also took a dig at the rival BJP. "The BJP and RSS are trying to keep the poor as poor and make the rich richer. People have to fight against it," he added. He thanked leaders of various parties belonging to opposition parties for extending their support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
