As Rahul Gandhi embarked on his Bharat Jodo Yatra, the first massive public outreach programme organised by the Congress since its electoral fortunes plunged from the 2014 Lok Sabha poll rout, the beleaguered Grand Old Party sniffs a final chance to revive its sagging fortunes.
Gandhi, along with party workers and civil society members, will cover 3,500 kilometers from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 150 days by foot.
The Congress projects the yatra as an honest attempt to restore the principles of democracy and secularism, which many believe are facing threats under the Sangh Parivar-backed BJP regime. Critics call it a march that has failed even before it has begun.
Though it doesn’t admit, the Congress sees the yatra as a last-ditch effort to revive its organisational machinery and regain its support base. The critics, meanwhile, are sceptical about the way it has been planned.
Questions have already been raised about the itinerary and timing of the programme.
The route map
Though named Bharat Jodo, the foot-march covers only 12 states with 20 main points. A casual look at the route map exposes some misgivings about the itinerary. It is evident that the party has planned the march covering only its strongholds or safe havens.
The plan has exempted Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, two states which would go to polls later this year.
However, Rahul Gandhi would take a break to campaign for the two state assembly polls.
“By no means, a foot-march that starts on September 7 can reach Gujarat before the elections there. So there’s no point in the criticism that the Congress has excluded the state from the itinerary deliberately,” V T Balram, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee vice president posted on social media.
18 days in Kerala?
The yatra will spend 18 days in Kerala alone. Many within even the Congress failed to digest this.
“Why should he (Rahul) spend so many days in a small state like Kerala where the party still commands political space. The focus should have been to cover states and areas where the party has been losing its clout,” a source, who is part of the national leadership, told Onmanorama.
However, it is clear that the party’s strategy, for good or bad, is different. It wants to make the rally a show of strength wherever possible. It also wants to avoid embarrassing situations – like a sparse crowd – in states where its mass base has eroded.
The march will cover only the southern tip of Tamil Nadu, where the national party still has some presence.
“The yatra has obviously been designed in a manner to keep the spirits of the party high in areas where we are still strong. It spends 18 days in Kerala because only that way we can cover the state,” a leader who is part of the rally team told Onmanorama.
In Kerala, the yatra will take a turn at Nilambur in Malappuram district and cross over to neighbouring Karnataka.
In Karnataka, where Congress sees a distant chance of coming to power in the elections next year, the rally will cover a distance of 511 kilometres across 21 days. It will traerse Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. It skips Andhra, where the party has almost ceased to exist, and Chhattisgarh, one of the only two states where Congress is in power.
In Rajasthan, the other state where it is in power, the yatra will have three main stops – Kota, Dausa and Alwar. In Uttar Pradesh, the biggest state in the country, the yatra only has a namesake stop in Bulandshahar.
Simultaneously with the main yatra, there will be separate small Bharat Jodo Yatras in states such as Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Sikkim, West Bengal and Nagaland.
Internal woes
According to the current schedule, the election for the post of the Congress president will take place in October, when the yatra passes through Karnataka.
With Rahul Gandhi remaining reluctant to retake the post, which he quit following the party’s abysmal performance in 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it remains to be seen who would become the party chief.
“It’s actually puzzling in what capacity Rahul is leading the yatra if he is so reluctant to lead the party,” a party insider, who has been critical of the way Rahul left the organisation rudderless, said.
Attempts are still on to convince Rahul to take up the president post. If he agrees, the yatra, with all its shortcomings, could serve to be a launchpad for his second innings at the party helm.
Civil society support
Amid all the internal criticism, the Congress has managed to galvanise the support of civil society groups. More than 200 civil society members have appealed to the people to support the Congress' upcoming 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and similar initiatives by any other organisation to defend against the "systematic assault" on the unity and democracy of India.
Swaraj India founder Yogendra Yadav, document filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, All India Secular Front's Anil Sadgopal, rights activist Anjali Bharadwaj, theatre maker Anuradha Kapur, eminent journalist Mrinal Pande, former MP Dharamveer Gandhi and former IAS officers Abhijit Sengupta and Sujata Rao are among 204 civil society members who signed the appeal.
“For people like me who have come from people’s movements and not in the Congress party, the only thing in our concern is the overall climate in the country where constitutional democracy is being uprooted day by day. At a moment like this what is important is about saving our civilizational heritage, the heritage of our freedom struggle and the legacy of our constitution. The yatra is important because it signifies a call to unite the country in the face of deliberate attempts to divide the people by the ruling dispensation of the day,” Yadav told Onmanorama over phone. He arrived in Kanyakumari on Tuesday evening to take part in the rally.
Yadav, who had written that “Congress should die” in the aftermath of the 2019 poll drubbing, said he was least bothered about the political outcome of the yatra.
Such public outreach exercises would help bring changes in public perception on the political climate in the country, Yadav said.
