Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has embarked on his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from strife-torn Manipur, in what is seen as the party’s narrative-building exercise in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May. The 6,700-km yatra that will culminate in Maharashtra will bring to the spotlight issues such as high levels of inflation, growing unemployment, widening inequality and other social issues at a time when the BJP has deployed its entire machinery, including the pliant television media, for the 22 January Ram temple consecration ceremony at Ayodhya.
The Congress has asserted that, in the course of the yatra, the party will present a new vision for India that will be based on “harmony, brotherhood and equitability and devoid of hatred, violence and monopoly.” The party starting the yatra from Manipur also gives the message that it stands in solidarity with the people of the violence-hit state. On the other hand, the Prime Minister is yet to visit the state in the wake of the violence which got nationwide attention only after some videos got leaked on social media showing women being stripped, paraded on the streets and gand raped in July 2023.
It seems appropriate for the Congress to take up this yatra to highlight the real issues plaguing the country as the party was denied the opportunity to raise these matters in the Parliament from where a majority of Opposition MPs, breaking all past records, were suspended during the last session. The yatra is also important for the party as it seeks to revive its fortunes after a poor show in the last round of Assembly elections in the Hindi-speaking states late last year.
At the launch of the yatra, Rahul had this to say: “Question arises why Nyay Yatra? Because we are going through a period of great injustice in India — social, economic and political injustice.” He went on to add: “One or two businesses have their fingers in everything and the large majority of businesses, small and medium businesses are being destroyed. Huge levels of unemployment and massive price rise is what the whole of India is facing… On the social side, the large mass of India’s people — the lower castes, Dalits and tribals — simply do not have a say in the governance system of the country…”
While all this may sound soothing to the ears, it is also remembered that it is the Congress, as the leader of the UPA, that gave birth to all the evil that the nation is being plagued with now.
The Nyay Yatra will cover 100 Lok Sabha constituencies in 15 states and the Congress believes it will prove to be as “transformative” as Rahul’s earlier cross-country march. The party had reaped rich electoral dividends from Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. It helped the Congress connect with the masses and was believed to have played a crucial role in bringing the party to power in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. But it was immediately thereafter squandered away when Rahul, shedding his padayatra look and feel, went abroad and thought it fit to criticize India from foreign soil.
Meanwhile, it also needs to be mentioned that the party has given a strong message by deciding to skip the Ram temple inauguration event by calling it a “political event” and asserting that “religion is a personal matter.” This move may further cement the party’s minority vote-bank and win over secular Hindoos who want political parties to deliver on real issues and who do not mix politics with their religious beliefs.
Whether the Congress, in its present state, will be successful in effectively countering the BJP’s emotional narrative about the Ram temple ceremony with bread-and-butter issues only time will tell.