Bellary/Chitradurga: It takes a lot to keep ‘Bharat Yatris’ fighting fit.
Every evening, as Congress’s 3,570 km Bharat Jodo Yatra breaks for the night, a city of shipping containers, white tents and harsh floodlights spring up in the middle of nowhere, as if by magic. It is, organisers say, a “logistical nightmare” to put together and then dismantle this temporary campsite every day.
“There are 60 trucks with containers travelling with the group. The whole caravan is travelling together. We had just a month to do the recce and an advance team went ahead and initially identified 40 campsites along the route of the Yatra. Even now there is an advance team that is inspecting camp sites or selecting new ones as required. These have to be public places. We have dealt with unforeseen challenges along the way, for instance, about three days back, the weather hit us and the original campsite was flooded. It takes 2.5 hours to dismantle after the Yatris depart in the morning and another 5.5-6 hours to set it up before the Yatris start trickling in again, which is around 6.30-7 pm these days. It is, sometimes, a logistical nightmare,” Yasmin Kidwai, municipal councillor of Daryaganj (Delhi), in-charge of the logistics, tells ThePrint.
The access to the camp is strictly controlled and the security protocol leaves many an acolyte hoping to catch a glimpse of Rahul Gandhi stranded outside. The mobile city that Congress leader Gandhi and his 150 fellow Yatris and the support staff inhabit for a night before moving on is a self-contained one, complete with a roving kitchen, railway coach like bunk beds, a mobile clinic and an in-house laundry.
Through the 3,570 km trek, 60 containers are traveling with the group on trucks. Some of these containers are unloaded at the 11 am breakpoint while others go straight from one night halt to the next. Every Yatri including Gandhi himself is sleeping in containers at night – while he has one entire container to himself, other Yatris share containers. For the men, who are a part of the yatra, there are 12 beds in a container while for women, there are four.
It helps that the actual distance travelled every day is only 20-25 km so the trucks get from one night halt to the next in minimal time, Kidwai added.
The containers have a swanky feel to them, the toilets reminiscent of high-end hotels, even if by afternoon, the water starts running out. One of the Yatris, who has been walking from Kanyakumari told The Print: “The leaders’ containers are indeed swanky but the ones we are staying in aren’t particularly so. It is pretty basic – 12 men are housed in one container, thankfully, there are only four women in one.”
The kitchen is run by the Pradesh Congress Committee of whichever state the Yatra is passing through. There is even a green truck following the group from Karnataka that is picking up all the trash and water bottles left behind on the road by Yatris.
At the morning break point at 11 am when the sun starts getting harsh, Yatris are given cut fruits and water as a precursor to the lunch.
“The food is managed by the local Pradesh Congress Committee,” said a senior Congress functionary.
Apeksha Kakkar, an architect and a martial arts teacher, has been walking from Kanyakumari. “I am not a member of the Congress but I am walking because I believe in the Congress ideology. I am seeing the country like nothing else, meeting people like I never would. It has been an experience like never before but I did not like the food in Kerala. They provided both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. I loved the sambar but they tried to make North Indian dal roti for us that I did not like much. [During the] Tamil Nadu [leg], food served was all vegetarian,” she said.
For Congress functionaries providing support to the Yatris, the job is complicated owing to the remoteness of the locations.
“We have been in locations where nobody has a network for three days at a stretch. We have driven four kilometres just for the mobile network so that we can finish our work,” says an AICC functionary, requesting anonymity.
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Fully-equipped in house laundry
For the Yatris that one bunk bed and often a suitcase stashed away in some corner of the container, holds most of their worldly belongings. They are required to be in white so clean clothes are a necessity. Access to the in-house laundry is only for the Bharat Yatris. Every three days, they have access to it.
Another woman Bharat Yatri, who arrived from Delhi, requesting anonymity, says: “Every two or three days the in-house laundry comes for clothes, tags the clothes and in a sheet, writes down the name and number of the person. We get it back in two to three days. If it does not come, you hand wash your clothes in the container toilet in the evening.”
Kidwai says that the laundry largely functions out of a container, which is fitted with all the paraphernalia for the purpose. “We are also constantly on the lookout for washermen who can locally wash the clothes and give it back,” she added.
Former MP Meenakshi Natarajan, who is walking the Karnataka leg, says: “I am washing my own clothes. It just keeps drying along the way. It makes no difference to me. I am a veteran of many Yatras and have now become used to living my life out of a small bag.”
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Mobile medical van with pregnancy testing kit and more
A woman Congress worker from Chhattisgarh is one of only two Bharat Yatris who have needed to be hospitalised in the 38 days that the Yatra has been on the road. She had complained of queasiness, says Dr Manohar M, who is manning the mobile medical van at the camp.
Santosh Lad Foundation, a Karnataka-based NGO that works in the field of mobile medicine is responsible for providing the service for this leg of the Yatra. He has a supply of all regular commonly used medicines such as anti-emetics, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic medicines. He also has a supply of emergency medicines such as adrenaline and lasix. But today, those are not what he needs.
He hands the woman Yatri from Delhi a pregnancy testing kit, as the ill Congress worker sits on her mattress gingerly swallowing lunch and clearly in discomfort.
“Please ask her to test,” the doctor tells the woman Yatri from Delhi, pointing at the ill party worker. The woman Congress worker has just realised that she has missed her periods since the Yatra started.
This, of course, is a unique situation for the team but they are prepared for all contingencies, says the doctor. “Normally people come to us with blisters and fever and sore throat. Sometimes, they have elevated blood pressure but nothing more complicated,” says Dr Manohar M. The services are at a par with any clinic.
“This morning, I got my blood sugar and blood pressure tested. Just like we get tested in Parliament,” says Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretary, in charge of communication and Rajya Sabha MP. He takes part in the yatra every five days in a week.
(This story has been updated with additional inputs)
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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