Nyay Yatra in Guwahati: Congress claims no nod; police say request ‘under consideration’

PTI, Jan 21, 2024, 8:31 AM IST

Credit: X / @bharatjodo

Guwahati: The Congress on Saturday claimed that its ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ has been denied permission to pass through the state’s largest city Guwahati, though the police maintained that the request was ‘under consideration’.

The yatra, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to reach Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, under which Guwahati comes, on January 23.

“We had applied for permission for a roadshow and padayatra through a definite route in Guwahati. But it has been refused,” Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Debabrata Saikia told PTI.

He also said the application, seeking permission for the march, was submitted to the police on January 12 and again on January 19, with a follow-up email written by him on Saturday morning.

“As we did not get any response even after several hours of my email, I called the deputy commissioner of Guwahati police who is in charge of granting permissions. He informed me over the phone that our request had been denied. The written intimation will be made available on Sunday as the top officials were busy with the union home minister’s visit today,” Saikia claimed.

During the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in the city for several programmes.

The Congress leader said they have been asked to take forward the procession through the Khanapara-Jayanagar-Basistha-Gorchuk-Lohkra route, which is the National Highway 27 East-West that acts as the bypass for the main city.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who has been accompanying Gandhi during the yatra, also posted on X about the denial of permission.

“The Assam CM continues to deny permission to the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ to enter Guwahati on January 23rd. He is also refusing permission to @RahulGandhi to interact with the media at the Guwahati Press Club at the Club’s invitation. Clearly the Assam CM is very nervous and shaken by the tremendous response to the Yatra in Assam so far,” he wrote on the microblogging site.

When contacted by PTI, Guwahati Police Commissioner Diganta Barah said the Congress’ application for conducting the yatra through the city is ‘under consideration’.

Ramesh had also earlier claimed that the Himanta Biswa Sarma government has been creating ‘difficulties’ for the event.

He has claimed that the first ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 2022-23, which passed through BJP-ruled states, had not faced as many problems as it was witnessing in the northeastern state.

The Manipur-to-Mumbai ‘Nyay Yatra’ had entered the state on Thursday through Sivasagar district from Nagaland, and after three days of the first leg, it proceeded to Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday afternoon.

It will re-enter Assam on Sunday and travel through the state till January 25, covering 833 km across 17 districts.