Raja says CPI will join Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar in bid to unite patriotic forces

NEW DELHI:  Communist Party of India (CPI) general secretary D Raja has supported the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi, saying all shades of secular, democratic and patriotic opinion must unite to reclaim the republic and protect constitutional values.

“We have fought the British raj unitedly; it is time we come together and defeat the RSS-BJP raj unitedly,” said the communist leader in a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Raja said he and CPI Parliamentary Party leader Binoy Viswam would join the concluding stage of the yatra in Srinagar on January 30.

Appreciating the march, Raja said the call to unite against hatred was a welcome one. “It is imperative that all shades of secular democratic and patriotic opinion must unite to reclaim the republic, protect constitutional values and fight for an inclusive India, which Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar and Shaheed Bagat Singh dreamt of. Mahatma Gandhi sacrificed his life for the cause of unity in the country, his martyrdom inspires us to shed the divisions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ and come together to shape a better India,” his letter read.

On January 10, Kharge invited chiefs of 21 “like-minded” parties to join the concluding phase of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. Attacking the BJP and RSS, Raja, in his letter, said that “values of equality, liberty, fraternity, justice, secularism, and socialism enshrined in the Preamble of our Constitution form the bedrock on which our democratic republic stands. The RSS-BJP stands opposite to the idea of India as envisioned by generations of freedom fighters. They sacrificed all they had for an egalitarian, tolerant and inclusive India. The RSS-BJP is trying to distort that very imagination.”