Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday paid floral tributes to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at Sadaiv Atal. His surprise visit to Sadaiv Atal sthal came a day after Vajpayee’s 98th birth anniversary celebration.
On Sunday, President Droupadi Murmu, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to former PM Vajpayee at his memorial 'Sadaiv Atal'.
Rahul Gandhi on Monday morning was seen on a streak to pay tributes to former PM Lal Bahadur Shastri at Vijay Ghat, Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, former PM Jawaharlal Nehru at Shanti Van, former PM Indira Gandhi at Shakti Sthal and former PM Rajiv Gandhi at Veer Bhumi.
Earlier, Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered its 108th day on Saturday and was paused for a nine-day break till January 3 in Delhi.
Gandhi accused the BJP of spreading communal hatred across the country to divert the attention of people from real issues and use it as a "weapon" to destroy the poor, as his Bharat Jodo Yatra reached the national capital on Saturday.
Addressing a rally outside the Red Fort here, Gandhi said he did not witness violence or hatred anywhere in the country while walking hundreds of kilometres from Kanyakumari to Delhi and his Yatra was a true reflection of India, but he sees hatred being spread on television all the time at the behest of the powers controlling the media.
"Even dogs, cows, buffaloes, pigs entered the Yatra, but no one attacked them.
There is no hatred, violence during the Yatra. If anyone fell, people picked them up in a second. This is real India," he noted.
The former Congress chief attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging they spent thousands of crores of rupees to destroy his image, but he has shown the truth to the country in just a month.
Gandhi thanked people for the love and support showered on him so far during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which entered its 108th day on Saturday and will resume on January 3 after a nine-day break.
Hatred in the name of Hindu-Muslim is being spread through television 24x7 to divert the attention of people from the real issues, he alleged.
"When we started this yatra from Kanyakumari, we started with the aim of uniting people and ending nafrat (hatred). I felt there was hatred spread everywhere but when I started walking I realised the truth was otherwise.
"TV channels are spreading hatred and doing Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Muslim all the time, 24 hours. But, this is not true as this is spread in the media. This country is one and everyone loves each other and embraces each other, there is no hatred," he told a big gathering at the Red Fort.
"The media never talks about love. There is a reason behind this as this is being done to divert your attention. They do this Hindu-Muslim 24 hours on television, to take away your money and hand it over and sell all your ports, airports, roads and other assets to their crony friends," he said.
"This is not a Narendra Modi government, it is the Ambani-Adani government," Gandhi alleged as the audience clapped.
The Congress leader said he has traversed across the country, "but I have not seen violence, hatred anywhere. But I see it on television all the time."
He also claimed that 90 percent of Indians love and respect each other and there is no hatred and this has been the truth for ages. Gandhi said the BJP has raised the issue of religion and asked where was it written in the Hindu religion "to crush the poor and weak people" as he has not read this anywhere in the Gita or the Upanishads.
(With agency input)
