Rahul arriving today for yatra

Chennai: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whose Kanyakumari to Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (India Unity Walk) would be flagged off by Chief Minister M K Stalin on Wednesday, is arriving in Chennai on Tuesday evening by a scheduled flight from Delhi as he would be visiting the Rajiv Gandhi memorial at Sriperumbudur ahead of undertaking the 3500 km journey, spanning 150 days.

Security agencies at the Chennai airport have already geared up for the VVIP visit to the city as Rahul Gandhi, after going to Sriperumbudur by road on Wednesday morning, would be boarding a flight to Thiruvananthapuram at 11.40 am and reach Kanyakumari by road.

Rahul Gandhi would visit the Thiruvalluvar statue and the Vivekananda rock memorial situated in the sea off the coast and the Kamaraj memorial in Kanyakumari before starting his unity walk from the land’s end. After covering an initial distance of 600 metres, he would address a massive rally.

TNCC President K S Alagiri said lakhs of people, including political leaders, social activists, intellectuals, writers, artistes and experts would also accompany Rahul Gandhi in his march through the villages, towns and cities to reach out to the people, interact with them and understand their problems.

Under the present Union Government, the poor were becoming poorer and the rich richer with inflation shooting through the roof and trapping farmers and workers in deep debts, even as that nation was being divided on the basis of caste, religion, language, culinary culture and attire setting one Indian against another through diabolical schemes plotted every day, Alagiri said.

Since the women felt insecure under the present regime in New Delhi with people’s voices being stifled, Constitutional rights crushed and democratic institutions weakened through the attempts to break the solidarity and fraternity among the people, the unity walk would be a historic turning point in the nation’s politics, he said.

Stalin, who is leaving for Thoothukudi by a scheduled flight on Wednesday morning to flag off Rahul Gandhi’s unity walk at Kanyakumari, would return to Chennai on Friday after a tour of the southern districts for a couple of days by taking flight from Madurai.