After Sardar Patel, BJP aims to claim Mahatma Gandhi

New Delhi: The elaborate set of instructions issued by BJP to its leaders for the on-going month long Gandhi Sankalp Yatra gives clear indications that the saffron party senses an opportunity here to claim it is the real inheritor of his legacy and draw parallels between its own ideals and that of the Father of the Nation.
The letter sent by BJP General Secretary Arun Singh to party MPs, MLAs and office bearers compares Gandhi’s Sarvodaya with party’s ideology of Antyodaya, the Make in India programme to the Mahatma’s call for becoming self-dependent and promotion of Swadeshi products. There is also an emphasis on spending time in the villages during the Yatra.

BJP will also promote the welfare programmes of the Narendra Modi government including Swacch Bharat, a slogan given by Gandhi who put cleanliness next only to Godliness. Other schemes to be promoted are Ujjwala, Ayushman Bharat, Swacch Bharat, affordable housing and Make in India.

“This is a golden opportunity to create awareness among the common people about the ideals of Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary. In addition, we have got an opportunity here to establish BJP as the true inheritor of Gandhiji’s principles. We should start the Gandhi Sankalp Yatra keeping this aim in mind,” Singh said in his letter.

The leaders who will lead this yatra have been given specific guidelines. The programme will conclude on October 31, Sardar Patel’s birth anniversary,

The leaders have to wear only Khadi, carry a bag or some cloth made of Khadi with them, sport the traditional Khadi jacket and carry other Khadi material, wear simple clothes and conduct themselves with all simplicity during the Yatra. The group will propagate the use of swadeshi goods, buy toys and other stuff from local artisans and weavers, and consume only food prepared from local crops.

During the Yatra, the BJP leaders will take out Prabhat pheris during which Gandhi’s favourite bhajans will be sung by them. Audio CD of a Gandhi bhajan sung by Mohammad Rafi has also been distributed for use at the start of these meetings.

“Slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai should also be raised,” the letter said.

Leaders have been directed to make liberal use of social media and hold press interactions, organise Facebook Live sessions, and post snapshots on social media on these events.

Each leader will have to lead a group of 50-100 people and travel not less than 5 km and not more than 15 km in a day. Atleast six villages have to be covered in a day and each leader will have to complete the yatra in 15 days from the day he/she starts it. Thus, each group will cover 90 villages.

A system of “relay yatra” will be followed by leaders who cannot travel this distance due to age and health reasons. Another leader and his group will take over from where this group stops.

The yatra will educate people on Gandhi’s seven principles. Leaders will speak on de-addiction but the crowd should comprise of atleast 500 people. The yatra should reach out to all communities and castes. Special effort should be made to meet weavers, safai workers, Dalits and family members of freedom fighters.

The yatra will see BJP leaders educating people on making India free of single use plastic, promoting water conservation, controlling population explosion, and teaching the benefits of digital India to atleast five people per week.