‘The country sees a ray of hope in Rahul Gandhi’

 

 

‘The country sees a ray of hope in Rahul Gandhi’

The Bharat Jodo Yatra started in Kanyakumari on September 7 last year- successfully concluded with a grand finale at the Sher-I-Kashmir Stadium in Sringar on January 30- the martyrdom day, after 145 days of arduous journey by foot, touching 75 districts in 14 states of the Union of India, covering more than 4000 km. When the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi started the Yatra, hardly anybody could believe that he would succeed in undertaking such a marathon journey, even the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and his sister Priyanka had apprehensions about the Yatra’s success. And his rivals phoo phooed him.  He proved all his detractors, including the armchair intellectuals and journalists, wrong.  He demonstrated grit, determination and physical endurance. Though history has examples of march: Adi Shankaracharya,700 AD, Mao Zedong ,1934-35, Mahatma Gandhi, 1930 and Martin Luther King,1963-65, the Bharat Jodi Yatra is unique in many ways- the first of its kind in post-independence India in terms of its mission and reach. Rahul Gandhi held 13 press conferences, listing the issues and the problems facing the country, and answering the questions forthrightly.

 

On entering Jammu & Kashmir on January 19, Rahul Gandhi said that his ancestors had moved from Kashmir to Uttar Pradesh, and he felt he was returning home: “I am going back to the place from where my family had gone to Uttar Pradesh. When one goes to his roots one comes across many things to learn about himself, his people and the country. Bowing my head, I have entered your land and I want to tell you that whatsoever is your religion or caste, whether poor or rich, youth or old, the country is yours, and you belong to this country.’

He said the issues facing the country are: hatred, unemployment, rising prices and the making of two ‘Bharats - one of the billionaires and the other of the poor. The BJP, RSS, top billionaires of the country and the media are working as a team to divert people’s attention from the real issues.  He struck a chord with the people instantly. And the people of Jammu and Kashmir confined for long periods and deprived of freedom and the basic rights, poured out on the streets in thousands, with excitement and enthusiasm to welcome and greet him, as if they were released from the confinement after living secluded lives with fear and insecurity for so long. Since August 2019, no national party leader has visited the State except in bullet-proof cars and tight security. He brought a ray of hope to a beleaguered and distraught people.  

The former Chief Ministers of J&K, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah walked with Rahul Gandhi on the streets of Srinagar. To Omar Abdullah, the people who came out to greet Rahul saw in him as someone representing their sentiment and taking Delhi to task for its shortcomings. Mehbooba said, her participation in the Yatra was 'not about electoral politics', but because 'someone is standing up to the communal forces and calling a spade a spade...we acceded to Gandhi and Nehru's India, not to what's happening today.'.

 

Rahul Gandhi hoisted the national flag on 29 January at the historical Lal Chowk, where Pandit Nehru unfurled the tricolor 75 years ago in 1948, making Jammu & Kashmir an integral part of the Indian Union. And standing in rain and heavy snow fall at the Sher-I- Kashmir Stadium, he made a stirring emotional speech at the concluding rally the next day. As Radha Kumar recalls: "His deeply moving account of his own personal trauma at the assassination of his grandmother and father and how it enabled him to share the anguish of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and their desire to end the politics of hate would be remembered for years to come."

The Bharat Jodo Yatra has given an alternative vision of governance to the country and  opened ‘shops of love in the market of hatred’- nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukan. Recounting the incidents from the past, when violence consumed the lives of his grandmother and father, he said: 'Those who stoke violence won’t understand the pain it inflicts. I understand violence. I have seen it and suffered it. Like Modi, Shah, RSS, they have not suffered violence. I can relate to the families of the Pulwama attack victims, with the hundreds of families of Kashmiris and of the security forces' and that his vision is to end the violence.

The PDP leader who also addressed the concluding rally said: ‘In 1947, Gandhiji said that he sees a ray of hope in J&K. Today, the whole country sees that ray of hope in Rahul Gandhi. This Yatra has once again rekindled that ray of hope in the whole country’.  

This sentiment echoes what the then DMK President MK Stalin said in his letter to Rahul Gandhi on 29 January 2021: “India is being destroyed in the clutches of a fascist government now. You have the responsibility to protect India at this time…. take the responsibility to stitch an alliance against the BJP at the national level.”

  

After the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress shifted its focus to its ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo Abhiyan’, launched on the Republic Day January 26, as an extension of the Yatra, with a clear political outreach to the people,where the party aims to cover about 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 6 lakh villages, and over 10 lakh polling stations, hand out to the people Rahul Gandhi’s letter, together with a chargesheet against the Modi government.

 

Rahul Gandhi in his letter addressed to Indian citizens, released on January 13,2023, says:

 

“There is a palpable economic crisis brewing - joblessness among the youth, unbearable price rise, severe farm distress, and a complete corporate capture of the country’s wealth. People are worried about losing their jobs, their incomes are falling further, and their dreams of a better future are shattering. There is a deep sense of hopelessness across the country…divisive forces which are attempting to divide the country along religious, communal, and regional lines. These forces, which are only a handful in number, know that only when people feel insecure and scared can they sow the seeds of hatred for the ‘other’. But after the Yatra, I am convinced that this vicious agenda has its limits, and it cannot go on any longer.The people of our country realize that we cannot reach our full potential unless we embrace our diversity and work shoulder to shoulder. I strongly believe that India will reject hatred. We will rise above caste, religion, language, gender, and all other differences that cause rifts in society. Our greatness lies in our Unity in Diversity. My message to each one of you - Daro Mat! Remove fear from your hearts, and hatred will vanish from within you."

 

He asserted that he would be ready to fight against the ‘evils’, from the streets to the Parliament. He also reiterated his promise to create economic prosperity through assurances such as the right price for farmers’ produce, jobs for unemployed youth, fair distribution of the country’s wealth, a stronger rupee, cheaper diesel, an enabling environment for MSMEs and entrepreneurs, and a gas cylinder for ₹500. And “through this historic Abhiyan, the Congress party is extending its hand to you - lend a hand, come together to put the country back on the path of building a Swarnim Bharat - where every single Indian has an equal chance to fulfil his dreams.”

 

The Congress has come out with a chargesheet against the Modi government listing its various acts of omission and commission during the past nine years, released on 21January. The charges, inter alia, include:

(i) Modi flew to Delhi to take oath in a businessman’s private jet whose wealth grew 50 times since 2014;

(ii) Rs.72,000 crore loans taken by Modi’s friends waived off, but not a single farmer’s loan waived;

(iii) More than Rs.10,000 crore of taxpayers’ money spent by the BJP to boost Modi’s image;

(iv) BJP’s assets cross Rs.5000 crore along with 90% of opaque electoral bonds as legalised hafta;

(v) Unemployment is at 45 years high with 10 lakhs+govt jobs vacant;

(vi) Education fess have tripled, and graduates are working as labourers, delivery boys and pakodawalas;

(vii) Demonetisation and GST forced 23 crores into poverty,50 lakh jobs lost and lakhs of MSMEs shut down;

(viii) The prices of petrol and diesel have hit a century, and gas cylinder crossed the Rs.1100 mark;

(ix) Black farm laws caused the death of 700 farmers, and loss of Rs.60,000 crore;

(x) Atrocities on women have increased by 27% under BJP, there were 86 rapes daily in 2021.

(xi) Child malnutrition is on the rise under Modi, 21 crore children are malnourished.

(xii)  500% rise in hate speeches, minorities and marginalized forced to live in fear;

(xiii) Pre-matric scholarship of school students from SC, ST, OBC and minority communities stopped;

(xiv) BJP bought 300+ MLAs/MPs and toppled 7 state governments to udo people’s mandate;

(xv) Modi's friends have bought all TV and print Media, while IT,ED,CBI silence dissent voices;

(xvi) Decline on all international rankings since 2014, Hunger Index (50 to 107), Press Freedom (140 to 150), Democracy Index (27 to 46), per capita income now below Bangladesh

The nation-wide goodwill generated by Rahul Gandhi’ s padayatra would come handy for the Congress. It is a litmus test to create a groundswell against the Modi government. There are nine state Assembly elections in 2023, followed by the general election on 2024. There is no reason why the opposition parties should not have an understanding and rally behind the Congress, with Rahul Gandhi becoming the biggest crowd puller and his Yatra turning into a game changer in national poltics, to fight the authoritarian regime of Modi. The question: who the opposition face to challenge Modi is irrelevant in a parliamentary democracy. After the election, based on their performance, the parties can decide on the leader to head the national government.