Former Manipur Congress minister and five-time MLA Irengbam Hemochandra Singh spoke with News 9 journalist Kartikeya Sharma on his programme “On Point” a few days after he resigned. During the conversation, the ex-Congress leader called Rahul Gandhi his main reason to quit the party.
Further, condemning the Gandhi scion’s decision to start the second leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra from the violence-stricken state of Manipur, the former Congress MLA also went on to accuse the Gandhi scion of turning the road show into a “tamasha” and a “picnic”.
Hemochandra Singh resigned from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress and has also given up all other positions he held with the Pradesh Congress Committee on Sunday, March 31. He submitted his resignation to K Meghachandra, the president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee, stating that he no longer had any faith and confidence left in the party’s high command.
Ex-Congress Minister of Manipur calls Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra nothing but a political stunt, questions his intent to choose violence-stricken Manipur to begin his campaign
Explaining his rationale behind calling Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra, a political stunt and questioning Rahul Gandhi’s intent to begin his second Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra from the violence-stricken Manipur, the former Congress MLA said, “When Rahul Gandhi embarked on his first venture, the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, he was seen walking 25 kilometres a day slugging it out in a thin t-shirt in the bitter winters of North India. This probably struck a cord in the people’s minds that Rahul Gandhi is trying to reinvent himself or probably trying to change his ways of thinking and approach towards politics. But, later on, when he came for his second avatar, his 63 days Bharat Naya Jodo Yatra, for some reason which at least was not agreeable to me, started in Manipur, which was in the middle of a crisis, where people were still suffering, living in pitiable conditions in relief camps. In such a situation, Congress felt it was right to start their Yatra from Manipur, which I felt was a total political step,” Hemochandra Singh stated, adding, “As an insider at the time, I felt that Manipur was not ready for the politicisation and that Manipur should have been the last place Congress should have chosen to begin the Yatra.”
Singh went on to denounce the Congress, asserting that it had solely chosen Manipur as the starting point for its Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra with the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in mind.
“The entire Congress leadership flew down in a chartered plane as if it was a big tamasha. Karnataka CM, Mallikarjun Kharge, etc. they all came down as if it was a whole jamboree (large, festive gathering) and Rahul Gandhi, who was braving the cold and walking, was this time in an air-conditioned Volvo. It was a picnic. It was a picnic. It was a roadshow which had no meaning for the pain we (the people of Manipur) were suffering from,” Hemochandra Singh added, lambasting the Congress scion and his party members for turning the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra into a political escapade.
On 16th March, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress scion, concluded his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra which commenced on 14 January 2024 from Thoubal in Manipur, the foot march he had started immediately after the party had lost three of the four states in the assembly elections last year.
The movement led by Rahul Gandhi was an extension of the party’s longstanding agenda driven by divisive politics and hate speeches. Similar to its prequel Bharat Jodo Yatra, there were numerous attempts to widen the rifts in Indian society, even resorting to purposeful fabrications and disinformation.