By TCN Staff Reporter,
Patna: The communal harmony yatra, which started from Ayodhya on 2nd October, today reached Bodhgaya in Bihar singing peace songs and collecting accolades from villagers and city dwellers alike all the way. Named as Manavta Ekta Yatra, the caravan led by noted peace activist and Ayodhya saint Yugal Kishore Shastri will culminate at a conference in Patna on 11th October.
“We got praises and accolades all the way from Ayodhya to Bodhgaya. The huge response was more than we expected. We were passing villages and towns singing songs of peace and communal harmony and distributing peace literature. At some places we had to hold more programs than schedule given the demands of the locals,” Yugal Kishore Shastri told TCN over phone from Bodhgaya.
“We held four programs in Varanasi. We touched several rural areas there. At a program more than 500 people gathered. Another city we gave much importance was Mau given its bad history of communal violence. Our visit to the city was historic, as local channels gave huge coverage to our programs,” informed Shastri.
There are 18 members in the caravan. An interesting point is that many of them are students of social work. The caravan comprises members from Hindu, Muslim and Christian and Buddhist communities. While Zeeshan is MSW student at Awadh University, Deepak, a clerk in Defence Ministry and posted in Uttarakhand has joined the yatra after getting information on facebook.
With the sole purpose of strengthening communal harmony and peace in the country, this was the seventh such yatra taken out by Shastri ji. The yatra began its journey on 2nd October – the birthday of prophet of nonviolence Mahatma Gandhi. Covering over thousand kilometers the yatra on Tuesday reached Bodhgaya, the abode of another prophet of peace Mahatma Buddha.
“To promote communal harmony, co-existence, tolerance, human unity and peace in the country, this public contact yatra will be taken out under the leadership of eminent peace activist Yugal Kishore Shastri,” reads a pamphlet from the organizers of the yatra – The India Harmony Foundation, New Delhi, Sarvadharma Sadbhav Kendra (Trust), New Delhi and Asha Parivar, Varanasi.
Shastri, who has his own math at stone’s throw from the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, had witnessed the pulling down of Babri Masjid by Hindu extremists and had given shelter to many mediapersons who were attacked by those extremists. He has been working for peace and communal harmony for past 30 years.
Insaan ka Insaan se ho Bhaichara, Yahi Paigham Hamara was the moving mantra and slogan of the participants of the yatra.