Rediscovering India

With Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra set to enter Karnataka on September 30, Sachidananda Gautam explores the importance of the Yatra, which will cover over 3,500km in 12 states and five union territories in the next five months, for India in general and Congress party in particular

Yatra or travel, for any person, is believed to help attain enlightenment and understand the land, language and culture he or she encounters in the course of the journey.

This journey is a state of mind, both functional and metaphorical, reflecting the traveller’s inner search for belonging. In India, Father of the Nation, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was one the first proponents of the Yatra.

He was advised by his mentor Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who belonged to the ilk of ‘moderates’ within the Congress, to tour India for a year before embarking upon political work. Gokhale’s instructions suited Gandhi well as he was aware of the fact that, in India, the differences in religion, caste and language were wide and diverse and he needed time to understand them.

Thus began his tour of India from erstwhile Bombay. It had passed through the length and breadth of India - from Kolkata to Ahamedabad and Delhi to Chennai. He attended several meetings and talked about indentured labour during the course of the Yatra. Later, Gandhiji elevated Yatra to a fine art with Dandi March (known as Salt March) and during partition riots.

Post Independence, Lal Krishna Advani had taken out the Ram Janmabhoomi Rath Yatra in 1990 to mobilise Hindutva activists to demolish Babri Masjid and, in the process, gave a solid base to Hindutva politics in the country. In 1991, another top party leader Murali Manohar Joshi took out an Ekta Yatra with the slogan of national unity.

Now, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a grand Bharat Jodo Yatra (United India March) with an ambitious plan to reach out to masses. Rahul launched the Yatra at a time when the Congress is facing a huge existential crisis. Though BJP and many former Congress leaders, who left the party and joined hands with the saffron outfit, criticised the Yatra, one thing is clear: this is the launchpad for Congress’s rediscovery of India.

The Yatra, which began from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7, will pass through 12 states and five union territories and cover more than 3,500km in about five months. Its culmination in Kashmir may coincide with the Election Commission of India’s announcement of the polls to the Karnataka Assembly. Rahul and his team of Yatris will spend 21 days in the election-bound Karnataka during which he is expected to interact with a lot of people.

Bringing India together

The Yatra aims to bring all Indians together irrespective of their religion and community. It will remind the people that our country will be successful only if we stand together and respect each other besides the dangers of economic inequalities, social and political polarisation.

The Yatra is crucial for the Congress, which, after a series of electoral debacles, has to energise the party’s rank and file for the upcoming Assembly elections in several states and, more importantly, for the 2024 Lok Sabha election. But the party leaders have been consistently stressing that the Yatra is not aimed at reaping electoral benefits. That is why they claim the party left out electionbound Chhattisgarh from the Yatra route. Another positive aspect of the event is that no one has claimed its leadership. Rahul himself has gone on record saying that he is just a participant.

This attitude has motivated the rank and file. The popularity of the event appears to have jolted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was evident from the fact that it had found fault with Rahul’s attire (Home Minister Amit Shah said Rahul was wearing a foreign T-shirt worth Rs 41,000 during the Yatra. Congress reminded BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suit which allegedly cost Rs 10 lakh). The saffron outfit even mocked the luxurious containers in which the Yatris are taking rest. The controversies, however, have not lowered the morale of neither the Yatris nor the people, going by the mass participation in the event in Tamil Nadu and Kerala where people flocked to greet Rahul and his team.  The Yatra will enter Karnataka on September 30 after finishing the 18-day Kerala tour.

Overcoming factional politics

The Yatra will reach Karnataka at a time when leaders belonging to the Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar camps fight for upper hand. In a veiled attack against Siddaramaiah camp, state Congress chief Shivakumar alleged that “some party leaders and legislators are not doing enough to ensure Yatra’s success”. On the other hand, Siddaramaiah and his support