Mumbai: In a bid to emphasise his party's commitment to Gandhian values, on Sunday morning Congress leader Rahul Gandhi went on a 'Nyay Sankalp Padyatra' from Mani Bhavan on Laburnum Rd in Gamdevi which is closely associated with the activities of Mahatma Gandhi.
He was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, along with hundreds of Congress workers. They marched to the historic August Kranti Maidan, where the Quit India movement was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in 1942 asking the British to leave India.
Members of some of the opposition INDIA bloc constituents also joined the padyatra. Later interacting with activists at the historic Tejpal Hall, Mr Gandhi said the ruling BJP does not dare to change the Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar. He said public opinion was strongly against any change in the Constitution.
He made the remark in the context of the recent statement of BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde of Karnatala who said his party needed two-third majority in both Houses of Parliament to amend the Constitution and "set right the distortions and unnecessary additions made to it by the Congress".
The BJP, however, clarified that these were Mr Hegde's personal opinion. The Lok Sabha member from Wayanad in Kerala said the current fight is between two "expressions", not just between the BJP and the Congress.
"One thinks the country should run centrally, where one person possesses all the knowledge. Contrary to this, we think there should be decentralisation of power, and people's voices should be heard," Rahul Gandhi said.
If a person holds an IIT degree, it does not make him/her more knowledgeable than a farmer, he said. But the BJP does not function like this, the former Congress president said.
"(Prime Minister) Modi and the RSS have a vision that knowledge lies with one person...farmers, labourers and the unemployed youth have no knowledge," he added.
On Saturday, the Congress MP concluded his 63-day-old 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' here by paying tributes to Dr B R Ambedkar at his memorial 'Chaityabhoomi' in central Mumbai and reading the Preamble of the Constitution.
The yatra, a mass outreach movement ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, had commenced from strife-torn Manipur on January 14.
