Ekta Yatra

Ekta Yatra (English: National Integration Rally[1]) is the name of two political yatras or rallies led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. The first began in 1991, following the 1990 Ram Rath Yatra.[2] The second began in 2011.[1] Each rally travelled through various Indian states and ended with the unfurling of the flag of India in what was then the state of Jammu and Kashmir.[1][3]

1991 Ekta Yatra

The 1991 Ekta Yatra was led by BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi and was intended to signal that BJP supported national unity and opposed separatist movements. It commenced on 11 December 1991 in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Subramania Bharati and the ‘Balidan Diwas’ of Guru Tegh Bahadur. The Yatra visited 14 states.[1] Other notable participants included Narendra Modi, who helped organize the rally, and Anandiben Patel.[4][5] The motorcade of hundreds of vehicles was stopped at Patnitop beyond Jammu on 25 January 1992. The rally's final stop to hoist the Indian flag in Jammu and Kashmir on 26 January 1992 was considered to have minimal success, as few locals participated.[3] Murli Manohar Joshi made it to Srinagar’s Lal Chowk in a military aircraft to unfurl the national flag on January 26.[6]

2011 Rashtriya Ekta Yatra

The 2011 Ekta Yatra was led by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, BJP youth wing national president and Lok Sabha member of Parliament Anurag Thakur.[1] The rally started in Kolkata, West Bengal on 12 January,[7] travelled through Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Haryana. The Ekta Yatra was to end with the unfurling of the flag on 26 January in Lal Chowk, a city square in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir.[1] But this did not happen as BJP leaders were arrested and not allowed to enter Kashmir.[8] Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley were held in detention on their arrival at Jammu airport.[9] Central and Jammu and Kashmir state governments stopped this yatra to continue in Jammu and Kashmir.[10]

References
  1. Sharma, Naresh Kumar (22 January 2011). "BJP to go ahead with Ekta Yatra in Kashmir". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  2. Zafar, Agha (15 December 1991). "BJP discovers national unity". India Today. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  3. Bamzai, Kaveree (15 February 1992). "BJP flag-hoisting ceremony in Srinagar turns out to be a damp squib, militancy gets a boost". India Today. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  4. Jose, Vinod K. (1 March 2012). "The Emperor Uncrowned: The Rise of Narendra Modi". The Caravan. pp. 2–4. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 11 November 2013.
  5. "The teacher who became Gujarat's first woman Chief Minister". The Financial Express. PTI. 3 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  6. "Will Bharat Jodo Yatra reach Kashmir?".
  7. "Ekta Yatra reaches city,leaders intent on hoisting flag in Srinagar".
  8. "Tiranga Yatra foiled, BJP blames Omar govt". Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
  9. "BJP's Ekta Yatra stopped, Swaraj, Jaitley arrested".
  10. "On Rahul Gandhi's Yatra To End In Kashmir, Minister's "Disturbance" Jibe".
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