ABOUT half a kilometre from Netaji’s statue at the famous Shyambazar crossing, Kolkata, the colour on January 12 was saffron. The occasion marked the flagging-off of the Rashtriya Ekta Yatra launched by the BJP Yuva Morcha.
In the presence of senior BJP leaders, thousands of BJP supporters gathered to lend their emotional support to national president of the BJYM, Anurag Thakur, before he set out on the two-week yatra that will cover 3,037 km and culminate with hoisting of the Indian tricolour on January 26 at Srinagar in Kashmir.
Present on the occasion were BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, general secretary Ananth Kumar; Chandan Mitra, MP and incharge of West Bengal, State party president Rahul Sinha and Smriti Irani.
A huge chrysanthemum garland with flowers in green and orange to capture the tricolour shade, was put around all leaders. The 21-kg garland seemed to symbolise the ekta (unity) as it held all the leaders together. Later the garland was placed atop the rath.
All supporters did their best in helping the environment look saffron. Saffron pullovers, woollen caps, mufflers or shawls dominated the scene. At 1.45 pm, the yatra headed towards the busy Mahatma Gandhi Road and Burrabazaar, Kolkata’s oldest and largest business centre. Supporters flanked the streets as the Rath inched its way through the busy afternoon street. It stopped at a ‘Manch’ where the local BJP leader and councillor garlanded Anurag. Flowers were showered, and once again, they were all orange marigolds which bloom in abundance during this time of the year!
From Burrabazar to Howrah and Salkia, at each stop the welcoming was truly grand. At Salkia, a shining long talwar (scabbard) was handed to Anurag Thakur. Local bands played patriotic songs, and instead of wearing the usual flashy maroon and gold, the band members too donned saffron, keeping to the mood of the journey.
A little before dusk the Rath reached Belur and waited awhile outside the famous Belur Math— a temple built under Swami Vivekananda’s guidance for his guru Ramakrishna, Netaji and then Swamiji: the path taken by the Rath could not have been more in consonance with the day chosen—birthday of Vivekananda.
Soon after sunset, neon lights lit up the Rath while spot-lights from below lit up the leaders, as they ceaselessly greeted the crowd in each locality and humbly asked for their blessings. They reiterated the cause of the Yatra and hailed freedom fighters from Bengal. The path taken beyond Kolkata was along the River Hooghly. Neither the cold river breeze nor the dark hour proved any hurdle to the visiting locals. The roads were chock-a-block with people who had turned up to catch a glimpse of the Rath. Some turned up out of sheer curiosity, others as staunch followers of the BJP.
It took a good five hours for the Rath to reach Chinsurah which is a small town in Hoogly district, 50-odd kilometers from Kolkata. The procession tried to catch speed between little towns. At certain places the leaders atop the Rath had to plead with the people to make way as they were to hold a meeting at Burdwan.
With the Yatra, the BJP undoubtedly is determined to march ahead with a new sense of purpose. With the Congress-led UPA mired in plethora of corruption charges, the BJP now is all set to stir up nationalistic emotions. And the party has chosen its favoured mode of public contact, a pan-India rath yatra, with a meaningful national agenda.
(FOC)
