Bengaluru,October,10,2022(www.justkannada.in): Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are not ready to occupy the post of All India Congress Committee president. They may have several reasons to shun the post for now. Then why are Congress leaders and workers running behind Rahul, who is leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra? Why are party leaders of all ages tying their shoes to walk and sprint to be at his beck and call if he is simply an MP?
What is the political purpose of the yatra if he is not leading the party from the front to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections? Is he merely a street messenger of harmony, love, and peace? Or is he using the walk-run-talk-rest regimen to gauge how popular he is with the public and party people? What position would the incoming president hold if he maintained his current position as the centre of power? Before the Lok Sabha elections, all of these queries will have their answers.
If these questions are pushed aside, then one can see many pluses in the jodo yatra. The much tried-and-tested padayatra is an effective mass communication strategy for politicians (journey by foot). Since September 8, Rahul has been walking the streets. The excitement he has sparked in some areas of Kerala and Karnataka is evident to his detractors.
He is walking along with Congressmen. Some are taking care of the logistics. They say that at exactly 6.30 am, he begins his Bharat Jodo Yatra. In order to prepare his body for the 3,500 mile excursion, he had worked out for three months. Walking 12 to 14 kilometres a day at the age of 52 would not be very simple. He has walked 22 to 24 kilometres on certain days. He serves as a good illustration of the ‘Fit India Movement’. Villagers form a line to visit him; some do so out of admiration, while others do so to satisfy their curiosity to see Indiramma’s grandson.
He is currently in the media’s attention. He’s being followed by a car carrying reporters. To cover his yatra, a team of New Delhi-based media personnel has been flown in. He has revived some optimism in the dormant Congress leaders and workers after three years of hibernation. The disparaging ads from the state BJP that criticise Congress are uninventive and crude. Rahul’s decision to disregard them, whether deliberately or unconsciously, is a positive thing.
Soft Hindutva
The Congress, led by Rahul, is continuing with its soft Hindutva agenda. He has visited Hindu temples, sporting kumkuma and a shalya. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, did not fall back on showing her bhakti. She visited a temple in HD Kote on Vijayadashami Day. He has also visited a church and a mosque in Mysuru. He took blessings from a Vokkaliga swamiji. His gesture of tying a shoelace for his mother has gone viral. He was sympathetic toward an injured baby elephant in Nagarahole. Getting drenched in rain did not cut short his public address. He has been an ear to youngsters whose parents died as a result of the Karnataka government’s “mismanagement” of the COVID-19 outbreak. Unmindful of security concerns, he has been walking more and talking less. There could be repeat scenes till the Yatra concludes in Jammu and Kashmir. His men will continue to mobilize crowd. But only the players will change.
He hasn’t addressed any of the favourite topics of the Karnataka Congress, such as Tipu Sultan, the hijab, or the PayCM campaign, among others. These topics have likely been purposefully left for his party’s leaders in Karnataka to chew over and consider. Occasionally he has criticised the BJP government in Karnataka saying it is corrupt. He does, however, consistently accuse the Modi administration of sowing discord and spreading fear.
What stance?
Now the question as to how he wants to position the party is different from that of the BJP. What is the agenda of Congress? What is it offering to Indians through this march? He is identifying the BJP with himsa (violence) and asatya (falsehood). He professes ahimsa (non-violence) and swaraj (self-governance). These are also the subjects being hard sold by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. The Atmanirbhar Bharat has been widely spoken of and visible progress has been seen and measured too.
If Rahul is trying to position himself as a peacemaker in the BJP-orchestrated ‘deeply divided India’, then can that be a selling point to voters who have come under the influence of the political narratives of Team Modi for eight years? Even if Mahatma Gandhi had been living to carry out satyagraha, upavasa, bhajan, walk, hug, and chat, he would have found it difficult to carry out man parivarthan, meaning altering people’s perspectives. Because to several factors, including greater use of social media, India has become very opinionated.
The Congress, in particular the mother-son duo who put together headed the party for 25 years, alone has to be blamed for its decline over the years. Now the onus rests on Rahul to revive the party. One may belittle his approach. But that is his choice. He may be exploring and experimenting to see whether a non-aggressive method and chanting the peace mantra would be able to give a new spin to the party.
The question remains, however, whether his strategy for combating the RSS-backed BJP would be effective. Only the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections would show how the exercise turned out. Irrespective of the results of the elections, he will be successful if he can motivate the party’s cadre and persuade them to remain energised until the voting booth opens.
Each state and each assembly constituency has its own dynamics on which the election outcome depends. If a leader or a party has to appeal, cutting across all the barriers, it is a huge challenge in the given political situation in India. The Congress, being the oldest party in the country, has roots in all states. The roots have to be respected and nurtured. Whoever becomes the party president among the three contestants will be a figurehead, though Rahul is saying otherwise.
Impact on Karnataka
What will be the impact of the Bharat Jodo exercise on the Karnataka Congress? Even before Rahul began his sojourn, the camps of Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar were in the electoral mood. Holding the hand of Siddaramaiah and making him run along with him doesn’t mean he has handpicked him as the chief ministerial candidate. Just because DK Shivakumar has taken care of mobilising party workers for the march or his frequent absence from the yatra to be before the Enforcement Directorate, doesn’t imply he is out of the race.
The State Congress has received a booster dosage from the yatra. But the simmering discontent between the two factions has not been attended to. The divide is deep as both leaders are ambitious to become chief minister. Rahul has categorically said that it is going to be a collective leadership to fight the polls. For now, it looks alright. But even under the banner of collective leadership, one person would be calling the shots. It is happening in all parties, including the Congress and BJP.
Both chief ministerial aspirants would be making smart moves while distributing B forms for the assembly elections. If the MLAs had to choose their leader in the Congress legislature party meeting, then both would have to ‘plant’ their favorites. What if the mother-son duo decides to appoint a Dalit CM or a woman CM? Let Congress first overcome the electoral drought to plan further.
-Asha Krishnaswamy
