Alwar (Rajasthan): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday urged BJP leaders criticising him to “open up shops to spread love in the market of hatred” as he was doing through his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Addressing a rally here on the sidelines of the Yatra, he also asked each minister in the Rajasthan Cabinet to undertake a yatra once a month across the desert state to reach out to the common people and redress their grievances.
On seeing Congress workers give flying kisses to him, Gandhi said he got distracted by their gesture and said even those atop BJP offices wave back at him after initial hesitation.
He said the Yatra has walked for 100 days now and “on the way sometimes I met my dear friends who are standing atop BJP offices, who do not respond to my waving but later they do”.
“I don’t hate them but I stand by my ideology. They ask me what I am doing and their leaders ask me why I am walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
“Some of them (of BJP) ask me what I am doing and why am I walking, my answer is: ‘Nafrat ke bazaar mein, mohabbat ki dukaan khol raha noon‘ (“I am opening a counter for spreading love in the market of hatred),” he said on why he was undertaking the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“You hate me, you abuse me, this is your heart. Your ‘bazaar is of nafrat’ (the market is of hatred), but my shop is of love,” he stressed.
Noting that all great leaders also did the same, he said, “I’m not talking just about myself, the entire organisation which gave India its independence. What are we before people like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, Patel, Azad, they have opened shops of love in the market of hate.” “This is my reply to all those in the BJP, open up a shop of love in the market of hatred. Because our country is of love and not of hate,” he said addressing a major rally here in the presence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and other state leaders.
He also praised the Gehlot government in Rajasthan for various schemes for children and women and other sections of society.