New Delhi: As the Bharat Jodo Yatra enters the crucial north India leg — where the Congress’ influence is waning in many states — the character of the 3,500 km pan-India march seems to be undergoing a gradual metamorphosis.
What began as a solo Congress effort, powered occasionally by civil society activists and bolstered in states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra by allies, is now reaching out beyond the umbrella of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to parties like the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The yatra, which began in Kanyakumari on 7 September with the intention of covering the length of the country to Kashmir, has already had confirmations from PDP and the National Conference in Jammu & Kashmir. This means that as it nears its final destination, Srinagar, it will have three former chief ministers of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir — Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq and Omar Abdullah — joining it.
However, unlike the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP in Maharashtra — all of whom walked alongside Rahul Gandhi in the yatra — neither the PDP nor the NC is currently an ally of the Congress.
Opposition leaders see the invitation to other political parties to join the yatra as an attempt to project Gandhi — who withstood pressure from party colleagues to stay away from the job of Congress president — as the face of a united opposition against the BJP in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, a senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and the party’s chief whip in Rajya Sabha, told ThePrint that despite the Congress’ “frantic” attempts, the party has, so far, “not received any support outside of the UPA umbrella, barring a few, rather symbolic presences”.
“If a party traverses the country and meets people, there is always some impact. I’m not making comparisons but take Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi or Salt March, Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement, or even former prime minister Chandra Shekhar or RSS chief Golwalkar — they have all done yatras and seen an impact. Even Advani’s ratha yatra enthused karsevaks,” he said. “It’s good that the Congress has woken up from its Kumbhakarna-like sleep of 20 years when it was engaged in drawing–room politics. But the key is to continue this tempo.”
As an example, Ray spoke of an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium in 1997 when then-Congress dissident Mamata Banerjee’s meeting right outside had a larger crowd than the one gathered inside the stadium.
“Our leader has always been a leader of the masses and her governance and her politics is all about going to the people,” Ray said.
TMC has rebuffed an invite from the Congress to join the yatra, the latter has claimed. However, sources in the TMC say its supremo Mamata is a trendsetter in street politics and therefore needs to play second fiddle to nobody.
Congress leaders, however, deny that there’s any attempt to vie for supremacy in the opposition camp. AICC general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh told ThePrint: “Don’t read too much when nothing exists. All those who want to say farewell to Modi are welcome (to the yatra).”
Also Read: All the criticism against Bharat Jodo Yatra shows it has arrived in the national mind
Celebrities at Bharat Jodo Yatra
The yatra wasn’t without its share of glamour. Last week, southern superstar Kamal Haasan’s decision to join the yatra in Delhi raised questions — especially since his impact would have been greater in his home state of Tamil Nadu — the first state Bharat Jodo marched through.
The actor, who had launched his political party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) in February 2018, had been conspicuously absent from the Tamil Nadu leg of the yatra.
However, sources in the Congress told ThePrint that the decision to have the actor in Delhi and not in his own state was based solely on his availability and no other factor.
Gandhi had also written personal letters to many celebrities inviting them to join the yatra in Rajasthan, where the Congress is embroiled in a bitter feud over the chief minister’s chair between incumbent Ashok Gehlot and challenger Sachin Pilot.
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan was the most prominent face to respond to that call.
‘Opposition unity is working on one’s strengths’
Among the parties that rejected the Congress’s invitation to join the yatra were former allies Samajwadi Party (SP), the BSP, and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
The yatra will enter Uttar Pradesh on 3 January.
Javed Ali Khan, a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament from SP, told ThePrint that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was for a good cause and the Congress has his party’s “good wishes” for its success but there was no reason for his party to join what is essentially a programme of a different political party.
“We aren’t allies. We’re carrying out our own activities to defeat the BJP and its nefarious designs to spoil the country’s social fabric,” he said.
He added that the Congress didn’t have much of a presence in Uttar Pradesh and could not take on the BJP in the state.
“There’s no need to read too much into the yatra response because India has a tradition of welcoming people but the question really is whether the Congress has any identity in Uttar Pradesh. They don’t,” he said. “It’s like SP taking out a march in Tamil Nadu or Telangana. Opposition unity is about every party playing to its own strengths. Congress trying to take on BJP in UP is like a foreign wrestler trying to defeat the opponent in our gymnasium. It makes no sense,” Khan said.
However, Congress sources said there was never any conscious decision to make Bharat Jodo Yatra an opposition show of strength but it was felt that the cause of national integrity and economic issues that have been highlighted through the march are something many political parties relate to and may want to associate with.
“It’s on them. If they want, they can associate. Otherwise not. Congress is like the Ganges where many tributaries flow in. It represents the mainstream of Indian politics which is the confluence of many thoughts and ideologies essentially rooted in the Indian Constitution. That is why we have no qualms about associating with anybody,” a senior AICC functionary, who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also read: 2022 was the year world turned against strongman politics. Bharat Jodo is India’s chance