Uniting country is true patriotism: Rahul Gandhi
Varanasi (UP) (PTI): Uniting the country is true patriotism, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said here on Saturday and added that the rich and the poor live in "different Indias".
Gandhi was addressing a gathering on the second day of the Uttar Pradesh leg of the 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra'.
Gandhi, along with the party's state president Ajay Rai and other Congress leaders, stood atop an open jeep and toured the busy Gudaulia area of the temple town. Gandhi also visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
Addressing the people at Gudaulia intersection, Gandhi said that India is a country of love, not of hatred.
"The country will become weak due to conflict between brothers. True patriotism is to unite the country.
"I have come with my head bowed before Ganga ji. Everyone should feel that they have come to meet their brother during this yatra," Gandhi said.
He said that there are "two Indias" in the country - one for the rich and one for the poor. He also hit out at the media alleging that it doesn't show the issues of farmers and labourers of the country.
"This media will show Modi ji 24 hours, will show Aishwarya Rai, but will not show the real issues," he said.
Gandhi also called a boy named Rahul from the crowd and asked him about the money spent on his education and unemployment. Gandhi said that unemployment and inflation are the only two issues in the country.
Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel and the Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from Sirathu also joined the yatra in Varanasi.
The yatra on Friday entered the state from Bihar at Chanduali where it halted for the night.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav has said that he will join the yatra in Rae Bareli.
The yatra will traverse through Uttar Pradesh before entering Rajasthan. The east to west Manipur-Mumbai yatra will traverse 6,700 km through 15 states and aims to highlight the message of 'nyay' (justice) while meeting common people on the way.
VIDEO | Visuals of Congress MP @RahulGandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. pic.twitter.com/Mu0jXjAI4C
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) February 17, 2024
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
