Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said that Anurag Thakur is a union minister and that the people gathered in the yatra led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi are small people. He also said that he would not be surprised if the union minister said "goli maro..." as he had previously said during a rally in Delhi in the year 2020.
"It won't be surprising if Anurag Thakur says 'Goli Maro...' which he said earlier, look at the tremendous response to our yatra and the way people are gathering...He's a big minister, we're small people," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
Chidambaram's remark came in response to the union minister's question about whether Rahul Gandhi had been tested for COVID-19 because Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, who had walked "arm-in-arm" with the Congress leader during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, was infected with the virus.
"Covid cases rising in China, Korea & Japan but Cong is bothered about only one family. It's time to follow Covid protocol. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi, did he or other Cong leaders who came in contact with HP CM who tested positive, isolate, or get tested?," ANI quoted him as saying.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi was joined by former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and husband Robert Vadra as the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' entered Delhi. This comes as the BJP criticises the party's Covid guidelines in the aftermath of the global spike in cases.
The Congress and the BJP exchanged barbs after the Union health ministry asked Gandhi earlier this week to consider postponing his party's "Bharat Jodo Yatra" if the Covid protocols could not be followed.
Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in a letter to Gandhi and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday that three MPs from Rajasthan - P P Chaudhary, Nihal Chand, and Devji Patel - have raised concerns and requested that Covid protocols, including the use of masks and sanitisers, be strictly followed during the march and that only those who have been vaccinated be allowed to participate.
Rahul Gandhi stated that the ruling party can have as many public gatherings as it wants around India, but only sees Covid when his Bharat Jodo Yatra passes by. The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi arrived in the national capital on Saturday morning. Sonia Gandhi, Gandhi's mother, joined the yatra for the first time since it began on September 7. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, his sister and party general secretary, and her husband Robert Vadra also joined. This is the last day of the yatra in this phase before a nine-day rest until next year.
(With Inputs From Agencies)