advertisement
Apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Tuesday, 13 September, asked the Election Commission (EC) to initiate necessary action and inquiry into a complaint against the Congress and senior leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly "misusing children as political tools" in the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Decrying the move, the party's general secretary Jairam Ramesh indicated that these were tactics to 'derail' the efforts of the march.
As per the complainant, it has been alleged that "many disturbing images and videos have been circulating on social media wherein it can be seen that children are being targeted and are made to participate in their campaign with a political agenda under the slogan 'Bharat Jodo, Bacche Jodo,'" the NCPCR added, news agency PTI quoted.
The allegations are accompanied with violation of the Election Commission rules which state that only adults can be part of a political party.
The Congress has launched the Bharat Jodo Yatra with an aim to strengthen the party's grassroots level connection. The yatra, which began on 7 September, will cover 3,570 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir over a period of five months.
Responding to the allegations and the child rights body's response, the Congress said, "The NCPCR started by Dr Manmohan Singh's Government has now become a RSS affiliate nothing less (sic). Pathetic efforts to derail Bharat Jodo Yatra."
Meanwhile, chairman of the Tamil Nadu Congress also took to Twitter to say, "This news makes me confident that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is going in the right direction. The attempt by BJP to subvert the yatra exposes BJY's (Bharat Jodo Yatra) popularity."
(With inputs from PTI.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: 13 Sep 2022,10:04 PM IST