What is the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra and why did the ECI direct the Centre to postpone it?

The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra, an outreach program to promote Indian government schemes and initiatives, has taken a noteworthy turn as the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed the central government to postpone the yatra in five election-bound states.

The Election Commission received complaints about the government's plan to send senior bureaucrats on the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra from November 20.

To address this issue, the Commission directed the Cabinet Secretary to ensure that the program doesn't happen in the five states with upcoming elections and in a by-election constituency in Nagaland until December 5.

What is Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra?

• Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is a nationwide outreach and awareness campaign.
• It will be launched on the November 15 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The Yatra will begin in Khunti district, Jharkhand, and initially target tribal districts.
• The campaign will extend to cover the rest of the country from November 22, 2023, to January 25, 2024.
• This campaign will include all gram panchayats in rural areas and more than 3,700 Urban Local Bodies in urban areas.

Due to upcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Telangana, and Mizoram, the campaign will be implemented in these states after the elections are over.

The controversy

• The government planned a campaign to inform people about its achievements over the past nine years.

• To do this, they were going to send teams to villages and towns across the country.

• But this government's plan faced some issues. The Election Commission received complaints about government officials being part of the campaign.

• To address this issue, the Commission directed the Cabinet Secretary to ensure that the program doesn't happen in the five poll-bound states.

The Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Apurva Chandra, mentioned that the yatra wouldn't stop in the states where elections are taking place, and it would begin in those states after the elections.

Chandra, in his conversation with reporters, shared that they have decided to remove the word 'rath' when talking about vehicles used to promote government programs in around 2.55 lakh gram panchayats and about 18,000 urban areas.

The government faced criticism for using the term "Rath Prabharis" to describe the civil servants deployed for the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra. In response, they clarified that the officials would be called nodal officers instead.

The issue is that the Election Commission (EC) found out that a letter had been sent around in government ministries, suggesting that senior officers should be nominated as "District Rath Prabharis" for a special yatra or journey.

The Congress party objected, questioning how officials could be asked to participate in government pre-election "political propaganda."

A letter sent on October 17 informed various departments that Joint Secretaries, Directors, and Deputy Secretaries would be assigned as "Rath Prabharis" to coordinate the program's preparations, planning, execution, and monitoring.

On November 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off the yatra during the "Birsa Munda Jayanti - Jan-jaati Gaurav Diwas" by flagging off Information, Education and Communication (IEC) vans in Khunti, Jharkhand. Initially, the vans will visit tribal districts, and from November 22 onwards, they will cover the remaining districts until January 25, 2024.