In a move that has drawn significant attention ahead of the upcoming Haryana assembly elections, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi made a surprise visit to Ghogripur village in Karnal district on Friday. Gandhi interacted with the family members of a youth named Amit Mann, who he met during his US visit.
The visit kept under wraps even from local Congress leaders saw Gandhi meeting the family of Amit Mann, a young man who was injured in a road accident after migrating to the United States last year via “donkey route”. Amit drove a truck in the US and he suffered serious injuries in a road accident there. Rahul Gandhi had first met Amit during his recent visit to the US where he had promised to visit Amit’s family in person. Gandhi arrived at their residence early in the morning, speaking with Amit’s parents, Bir Singh and Biramati, about their son’s health and current situation. Gandhi even facilitated a video call with Amit, connecting him with his family back home.
“Amit’s father had to sell land worth Rs 42 lakh to fund his journey to the US,” said a family member, highlighting the extreme lengths families go to for the promise of better opportunities abroad. The visit has also brought into focus the larger issue of unemployment in Haryana, where many youths, especially from villages like Ghogripur, migrate abroad in search of jobs. According to local villagers, over 1,100 young men from the village alone have left the country, struggling to find employment in India.
Rahul Gandhi’s visit is seen by political insiders as a strategic move to shine a spotlight on the growing migration crisis. With Haryana’s assembly elections around the corner, this issue is likely to become a focal point of the Congress campaign, which has already been critical of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) handling of youth employment.
Most of the Congress leaders from the state , however, were reportedly taken by surprise by Gandhi’s visit. He reached Karnal at 5.30am and was received on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway by former AICC secretary and Gharaunda Congress candidate Virender Rathore, who is congress candidate from Gharaunda.
But party’s candidates contesting from region were unaware of his presence, underscoring the secrecy surrounding the visit. Amit’s family members claimed that they gave him Desi ghee, Makhan and lassi. As the battle for Haryana heats up, both Congress and BJP are focusing heavily on the issue of employment.
The visit to Karnal, previously the constituency of former Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Nayab Saini, carries political significance as Rahul Gandhi aimed to highlight the pressing issue of unemployment in Haryana, emphasizing how it is pushing the state’s youth towards illegal means to settle abroad. Rahul Gandhi had visited US from September 7 and he returned to India on September 14, a local member from the family of a Congress leader helped Rahul to meet the youths who had adopted the donkey route to reach abroad.
