New Delhi, Mar,03: Rahul Gandhi said during the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kashmir a person came to him and showed ‘militants’ who were keeping a watch on Rahul Gandhi. “I felt I was in trouble but nothing happened as I went there only to listen with no violence in me,” Rahul Gandhi said.
As Rahul Gandhi recounted his Bharat Jodo Yatra in his speech at Cambridge University, he narrated snippets of his experience that changed him as a politician. In an interesting account, Rahul Gandhi said as they continued walking despite threats, a person wanted to come near him. Though security personnel were not in favour of Gandhi allowing that person to walk along with him, Rahul Gandhi called the person. “The man asked me, ‘Mr Gandhi, have you really come here to listen to us?’. I said ‘yes’. He said, ‘Do you see those boys over there?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He said, ‘They are militants,” Rahul Gandhi narrated.
Rahul Gandhi delivered a lecture at Cambridge University on Learning to Listen in the 21st century.
“Militants should normally kill me. In that environment, they should kill me. The man said they are there and they are looking at you. I looked at them. and thought that I was in trouble. They were giving me this look, I am serious and I gave the look back and nothing happened, we just carried on. Why I am telling you this because they actually couldn’t do anything because they actually did not have the power to do anything, even if they wanted to. Because I came into that environment to listen, with no violence in me at all. And the vast number of people there saw that. That to me was the indicator of the power of listening and non-violence,” Rahul Gandhi said as he spoke on the topic of Learning to Listen in the 21st century.
Rahul Gandhi said the idea of Bharat Jodo started as he found that as the opposition party, it was very difficult to reach the people in an environment where the media, and the democratic architecture are under attack. “People who came to meet us during Bharat Jodo started sharing personal accounts with us as the yatra took an emotion turn,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Narrating an account of meeting two women who told him during the yatra that they were gangraped, Rahul Gandhi said, “I told them to report it to the police. They refused and said they would be shamed for life and won’t get married. They told me that they just wanted to confide in their brother. I asked them how I could help them. They said there was nothing to do and walked away.”
As the Bharat Jodo Yatra reached Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi was resisted by the security personnel. “They said you will get a hand grenade thrown at you. So I will become responsible for the 120 people walking with me. I told my partymen that I wanted to continue the walk. As we continued, Indian Flag started coming up everywhere. We were told 2,000 people would show up and 40,000 people came. The security system got overloaded and collapsed. The next day, they set it up properly,” Rahul Gandhi said showing photos from the yatra in Kashmir.(HT)
