Nitin Navin

Patna, Jan. 10: Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has launched a special drive to mobilise youths for Rashtriya Ekta Yatra.

The yatra would be flagged off from Calcutta on January 12 and would culminate at Lal Chowk of Srinagar where BJYM national president Anurag Thakur would hoist the national flag on Republic Day.

“BJYM has organised the yatra to protest the move of the Jammu & Kashmir government to exert pressure on the Centre for curtailing the special powers given to Indian Army for handling the menace of terrorism in the state,” BJYM national general secretary Nitin Navin said.

He said BYJM, through this yatra, will mobilise people’s support on points like removal of Article 370 from the Constitution of India which grants special status to J&K, delivering justice to Kashmiri Pundits who have been forced out of their homeland, adopt special steps for the youths of J&K and also to take steps for merging Pakistan Occupied Kashmir with J&K.

BJP national president Nitin Gadkari would hand over a Tricolour to Thakur at Calcutta on January 12 and this very Tricolour would be hoisted at Srinagar.

The yatra would pass through Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand before reaching J&K.

During the course of the yatra, a special programme would be organised during the Bihar leg on January 14, where thousands of BJYM workers would gather at Kargil Chowk near Gandhi Maidan of Patna and would take pledge to hoist the national flag at Srinagar.

“According to reports coming from different parts of the country, thousands of BJYM workers have already booked their train tickets for reaching Jammu on January 24 to join the yatra in its last leg and accompany the BJYM national president when he would hoist the national flag at Srinagar on Republic Day,” said Gadkari, who has been entrusted with the task of mobilising BJYM workers for the yatra. He added that workers of many states have also booked buses to reach Jammu on January 24.

The BJYM general secretary claimed that going by the trend and enthusiasm of BJYM workers, he was expecting one-lakh plus BJYM workers to be present in Srinagar on January 26. “From Bihar alone, around 15,000 youths would take part in the yatra,” Gadkari added.

Responding to a reported statement of Yasin Malik, the chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, that his organisation would not allow BJYM workers to hoist the national flag at Srinagar, Gadkari said: “One is free to air one’s views, but no force can stop BJYM from hoisting the national flag in Srinagar.”

He also expressed surprise over the reported reservation of the J&K government about the BJYM yatra and said it is being organised for the sake of integrity of the country and there was no point opposing it.