Misleading: The Bharat Jodo Yatra will be halted from December 24 to January 2 as Rahul Gandhi is going on an international trip to celebrate Christmas and the new year.

By: Anurag Baruah
December 22 2022

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Context

The Congress party's ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' led by Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to take a break from December 25, 2022, to January 2, 2023, after completing 100 days on December 16. The yatra, termed a mass contact initiative by the Congress, started from Kanyakumari on September 7 and has covered states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, and is currently in Haryana. The yatra is likely to reach Delhi on the night of December 24, according to a report by The Indian Express. 

The yatra has been the focus of multiple false claims and misinformation since it began. The fact that the yatra will be stopped for nine days, coinciding with Christmas and new year celebrations, has now acted as fodder for fresh false claims and speculations. 

A Twitter user posted on December 20, 2022, claiming that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is to be halted for nine days as Gandhi is going on an international trip to celebrate Christmas and the new year. We came across multiple other such posts on social media making similar claims. 

However, this claim is not valid. The Congress had announced as early as December 9 that the Bharat Jodo Yatra would be on a nine-day break for maintenance work from December 25, 2022, to January 2, 2023. We also found that Gandhi is supposed to remain in Delhi during the stopover and is scheduled to attend the ongoing Parliamentary session. 

In Fact

We found a news report by The Hindu with the headline, "Bharat Jodo Yatra to take a nine-day break," published on December 9, 2022. According to the report, the Bharat Jodo Yatra will take a nine-day break in Delhi starting December 25, halting for maintenance of 60 containers that house the participants. The party will resume the march on January 3. 

We also found a video of a press conference published on the YouTube channel of the Indian National Congress on December 9, 2022. At this presser, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh explained that the containers had not been serviced in the last 90 days, adding that they would need to be repaired and prepared for the harsh winter in the north, given a drop in temperatures is expected.

Ramesh also said that Gandhi will be in Delhi during the stopover of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and will be present at the parliamentary session.

On December 19, Ramesh also took to Twitter to announce the break. He tweeted that the break would allow many participants to return to their families after about four months. The Congress general secretary added that the journey will resume on January 3, 2023.

The Verdict 

The Bharat Jodo Yatra will indeed be halted from December 25, 2022, to January 2, 2023, but for maintenance work on the containers that house the yatris and not for Rahul Gandhi. The Congress party has also said in a press conference that Rahul Gandhi will stay in Delhi during the stopover and will likely be present at the ongoing Parliamentary session. Thus, the claim that the Bharat Jodo Yatra will be halted from December 24 to January 2 as Rahul Gandhi is abroad is untrue. Therefore, we are marking the claim as misleading.