250 writers and artists on Saturday extended support to Congress leader Rahul Gandh's ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra which is passing through Maharashtra's Hingoli district. A delegation of writers including Ganesh Devy, Pratibha Shinde and Lakshmikant Deshmukh met Gandhi at Kalamnuri and handed him a memorandum besides having a discussion with him.
We had a meeting with him. Nearly 250 writers and artists extended support to our memorandum," Marathi writer Laxmikant Deshmukh told PTI.The group told Gandhi that soft Hindutva adopted by some political parties as an answer to the Bharatiya Janata Party's Hindutva was not acceptable, he said, "Congress should also speak about other communities as this country belongs to them too," Deshmukh said. Other points discussed during the meeting and covered in the memorandum were the farmers plight and anti-farmer policies, and dilution of labour laws which is detrimental to permanent employment and social security of workers. The Bharat Jodo Yatra began on September 7 from the south-most part of India in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari. The 52-year-old Gandhi has concluded his determined walk across Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana.