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In line with RSS drill, Congress is taking out prabhat pheris to mark Indira Gandhi’s birth centenary; claims its workers invoked nationalism during freedom struggle.

New Delhi: To mark the birth centenary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the Congress is organising prabhat pheris (morning processions) — an exercise usually carried out by the RSS — across the country.

Apart from this, Congress’ Seva Dal members sing ‘Vande Mataram’ and shout slogans such as ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ in line with the RSS drill. The only difference though is that the Congress workers shout the word, ‘Jai’, three times.

While Congress calls it a move to propagate its own brand of nationalism, party leaders denied allegations that they are following in the footsteps of their arch rival, BJP-RSS.

“Seva Dal was established in 1923. Our members shouted these slogans during the independence struggle. The RSS and the BJP have just copied them and are trying to present a distorted picture of history,” Mahesh Joshi, national president of the Congress Seva Dal, told ThePrint.

“We are trying to make the younger generation aware of the sacrifices made by Congress workers, especially at a time when the dirty tricks department of the BJP is spreading lies about our leaders,” he added.

Dressed in white uniform, the Seva Dal workers take out a march in two lines with the Congress flag in their hands. Out of 10 marches in Uttar Pradesh, seven have already taken place with the remaining to be held in Agra, Rae Bareli and Allahabad.

Apart from ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, the Congress workers shout slogans such as ‘Kashmir se Kanyakumari, Bharat Mata Ek Hamari’ (From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, we have one India) and ‘Mahila Ke Samman Mein Seva Dal Maidan Mein’ (Seva Dal dedicates itself to protect the honour of women).

The morning processions are part of Congress’ year-long programme that will culminate on 19 November, Indira Gandhi’s birthday. The Seva Dal will organise a big event in Allahabad on that day.

Congress sources claim that the BJP has taken away a chunk of their voters through its hyper-national narrative and there is an urgent need to get them back in the Congress fold through exercises such as prabhat pheris.

“Every morning, our march is attended by senior leaders. UP Congress president Raj Babbar was present at the Lucknow event,” said Pramod Pandey, chief organiser of the Seva Dal, Uttar Pradesh.

Even Congress president Sonia Gandhi was supposed to attend the Rae Bareli function, but sources said she would skip it on health grounds. Other senior leaders are likely to attend the concluding function in Allahabad on 19 November.

“We organised similar programmes in the past too, without being too vocal about these issues. Instead of trying to grab the limelight, we love to work on the ground,” Joshi added.

Recently, the BJP government in UP had organised prabhat pheris across the state as part of the birth centenary celebrations of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay.

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