The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, will is scheduled to take out a “Tiranga Yatra” in Ayodhya on September 14 and is likely to make pitstops at Ram Lalla temple and Hanumangarhi.
Party leaders said that the message behind the yatra is to distinguish the party’s framing of Hindu identity, religion and nationalism in “very different” terms from the “divisive” version of the BJP’s.
The Indian Express quoted an AAP leader saying that a final decision on stops at the Ram Lalla temple and Hanumangarhi have not been finalised but these are “very much on the cards”.
Singh saids that in the run-up to the yatra in Ayodhya, the party will carry out Tiranga Yatras in Agra on August 29 and Noida on September 1. In Delhi, the AAP-led government is getting 500 high-mast Tricolours installed across the city at a cost of Rs 85 crore.
“The party will organise a series of events over the next one year to mark the 75th year of India’s independence. The message is simple: the BJP’s so-called nationalism is making India sick. The AAP believes nationalism is about offering people their rights. Be it good education or robust healthcare. For us, love for the Tricolour manifests itself in the form of a vision for the country, its development and the well-being of its citizens. It is about finding solutions to the most pressing issues of our times such as unemployment,” Singh told The Sunday Express.
The moves seems as a desperate attempt by the Kejriwal-led party trying to make inroads in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttarakhand, where it has fielded former Indian Army Colonel Ajay Kothiyal as its Chief Ministerial face with a promise to turn the hill state into the “spiritual capital for Hindus”.
With assembly polls in UP due next year, the AAP is eyeing to turn the tables on issues where the BJP holds strong in the politically crucial state.