New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday shared a video of his overnight “yatra” with truck drivers and the conversations he had with them while travelling on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway. Gandhi undertook the journey last Monday from Delhi to Chandigarh to listen to the problems faced by truck drivers. Donning his trademark white T-shirt, Gandhi, in the video, is seen sitting inside a truck, travelling with a driver and speaking to drivers at a dhaba. “Interesting conversation with truck drivers in six-hour Delhi-Chandigarh journey! Spending 24 hours on the road, he unites every corner of India,” he said in a tweet in Hindi while sharing a 35-second video of him during the journey. Continuing his interaction with people just like during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Gandhi met and spoke with a group of truck drivers at a dhaba in Murthal on NH-44, and travelled on a truck from there to Chandigarh, while on his way to Shimla, the party said. During the conversation with drivers, he decided to accompany Prem Rajpoot from Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh in his truck. Gandhi had a wonderful conversation with Rajpoot and his companion Rakesh that made the six hours pass in no time, a statement from the party said. The complete video narrates a story that three crore Indians are directly employed in the truck industry and reports suggest that every year there is a demand for nine lakh new truck drivers. However, according to an independent study, about 98 per cent of truck drivers, like Prem Rajpoot, a Lodhi Youth from UP, do not want their family members to join their profession. The same report also suggests most of them complained of harassment by police, and low and irregular income, the video stated. The story that these figures reflect is the same story that was retold by the truck drivers to Gandhi, who assured them that the next Congress government will do its best to improve their plight, the party said. Gandhi has been meeting people and listening to the voice of common Indians on a regular basis.
