New Delhi, March 5
While keeping a watchful eye on Deputy Prime Minister L.K.Advani’s proposed 33-day rath yatra across the country, the Congress has decided not to take any hasty step but to fight it out politically.

Mr Advani’s proposed journey has revived memories of the communal tension which followed his last rath yatra. As a result, the Congress-ruled states through which the Deputy PM is to travel will be on high alert. They will keep tabs on the tone and tenor of Mr Advani’s speeches to see if he is actually sticking to the development agenda as promised and not straying on to the party’s Hindutva ideology. In such a case, the Congress would give a befitting reply, it was stated.

“We will not arrest Mr Advani, we will let his rath yatra pass. I don’t believe in such measures, I believe in fighting it politically,” Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna said here today.

In fact, the Congress has taken a conscious decision to dismiss Mr Advani’s yatra as a mere election campaign by a political rival. In fact, it believes Mr Advani’s decision to set off on this journey is a response to Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s ongoing ‘jan samprak abhiyan’ programmes, which is drawing huge crowds.

While maintaining that Mr Advani has every right to undertake such a campaign, the Congress has also warned that any move to fuel communal passions would be dealt with firmly. Unless the state government concerned feels Mr Advani’s utterances during the yatra are threatening the law and order situation, there is no reason to object to his journey, it is argued.

“Yatras keep taking place...they have a right to say what they want, just as we have a right to say what we want,” Mr Krishna maintained, adding that he was all for a civilised political debate.