As the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi entered the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference patron and former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah likened the Congress MP to the Vedic scholar Adi Sankaracharya.
Drawing parallels while addressing a public meeting in Jammu and Kashmir’s Lakhanpur, Abdullah, who served as chief minister when Jammu and Kashmir was a state, said that Rahul Gandhi is the first person after Sankaracharya to have undertaken a yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.
“Centuries ago Sankaracharya came here. He walked when there were no roads but jungles. He had walked from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Rahul Gandhi is the second person who took out a yatra from the same Kanyakumari and is reaching Kashmir,” Abdullah said.
The octogenarian leader further said that the aim of this yatra is to unite India.
“The aim is to unite India. Hatred is being created in India and religions are being pitted against each other. The India of Gandhi and Ram was one where we were all one. This yatra is attempting to unite India. Its enemies are enemies of India, humanity and people,” he added.
Adi Sankaracharya was an eighth-century saint and philosopher who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita and made a significant contribution to unifying Hinduism by setting up four “mathas” across India.
Earlier, Congress leader Salman Khurshid had compared Rahul Gandhi to Lord Ram.
