New Delhi: As the Bharat Jodo Yatra enters the essential north India leg — the place the Congress’ affect is waning in lots of states — the character of the three,500 km pan-India march appears to be present process a gradual metamorphosis.
What started as a solo Congress effort, powered sometimes by civil society activists and bolstered in states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra by allies, is now reaching out past the umbrella of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to events just like the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP), Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP), and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
The yatra, which started in Kanyakumari on 7 September with the intention of masking the size of the nation to Kashmir, has already had confirmations from PDP and the Nationwide Convention in Jammu & Kashmir. Which means that because it nears its last vacation spot, Srinagar, it’ll have three former chief ministers of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir — Mehbooba Mufti and Farooq and Omar Abdullah — becoming a member of it.
Nevertheless, in contrast to the DMK in Tamil Nadu and the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP in Maharashtra — all of whom walked alongside Rahul Gandhi within the yatra — neither the PDP nor the NC is at the moment an ally of the Congress.
Opposition leaders see the invitation to different political events to hitch the yatra as an try and undertaking Gandhi — who withstood stress from get together colleagues to avoid the job of Congress president — because the face of a united opposition in opposition to the BJP within the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, a senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and the get together’s chief whip in Rajya Sabha, informed ThePrint that regardless of the Congress’ “frantic” makes an attempt, the get together has, to this point, “not obtained any assist exterior of the UPA umbrella, barring a couple of, moderately symbolic presences”.
“If a celebration traverses the nation and meets folks, there’s all the time some affect. I’m not making comparisons however take Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi or Salt March, Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan motion, and even former prime minister Chandra Shekhar or RSS chief Golwalkar — they’ve all carried out yatras and seen an affect. Even Advani’s ratha yatra enthused karsevaks,” he mentioned. “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. However the hot button is to proceed this tempo.”
For 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 assembly proper exterior had a bigger crowd than the one gathered contained in the stadium.
“Our chief has all the time been a pacesetter of the lots and her governance and her politics is all about going to the folks,” Ray mentioned.
TMC has rebuffed an invitation from the Congress to hitch the yatra, the latter has claimed. Nevertheless, sources within the TMC say its supremo Mamata is a trendsetter in avenue politics and subsequently must play second fiddle to no person.
Congress leaders, nonetheless, deny that there’s any try and vie for supremacy within the opposition camp. AICC common secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh informed ThePrint: “Don’t learn an excessive amount of when nothing exists. All those that need to say farewell to Modi are welcome (to the yatra).”
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Celebrities at Bharat Jodo Yatra
The yatra wasn’t with out its share of glamour. Final week, southern celebrity Kamal Haasan’s choice to hitch the yatra in Delhi raised questions — particularly since his affect would have been larger in his house state of Tamil Nadu — the primary state Bharat Jodo marched by way of.
The actor, who had launched his political get together Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) in February 2018, had been conspicuously absent from the Tamil Nadu leg of the yatra.
Nevertheless, sources within the Congress informed ThePrint that the choice to have the actor in Delhi and never in his personal state was based mostly solely on his availability and no different issue.
Gandhi had additionally written private letters to many celebrities inviting them to hitch the yatra in Rajasthan, the place 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 probably the most outstanding face to reply to that decision.
‘Opposition unity is engaged on one’s strengths’
Among the many events that rejected the Congress’s invitation to hitch the yatra have been former allies Samajwadi Get together (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, informed ThePrint that the Bharat Jodo Yatra was for trigger and the Congress has his get together’s “good needs” for its success however there was no purpose for his get together to hitch what is actually a programme of a special political get together.
“We aren’t allies. We’re finishing up our personal actions to defeat the BJP and its nefarious designs to spoil the nation’s social material,” he mentioned.
He added that the Congress didn’t have a lot of a presence in Uttar Pradesh and couldn’t tackle the BJP within the state.
“There’s no must learn an excessive amount of into the yatra response as a result of India has a convention of welcoming folks however the query actually is whether or not the Congress has any identification in Uttar Pradesh. They don’t,” he mentioned. “It’s like SP taking out a march in Tamil Nadu or Telangana. Opposition unity is about each get together taking part in to its personal strengths. Congress making an attempt to tackle BJP in UP is sort of a overseas wrestler making an attempt to defeat the opponent in our gymnasium. It is mindless,” Khan mentioned.
Nevertheless, Congress sources mentioned there was by no means any aware choice to make Bharat Jodo Yatra an opposition present of power however it was felt that the reason for nationwide integrity and financial points which were highlighted by way of the march are one thing many political events relate to and should need to affiliate with.
“It’s on them. If they need, they will affiliate. In any other case not. Congress is just like the Ganges the place many tributaries circulation in. It represents the mainstream of Indian politics which is the confluence of many ideas and ideologies primarily rooted within the Indian Structure. That’s the reason now we have no qualms about associating with anyone,” a senior AICC functionary, who didn’t need to be named, informed ThePrint.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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