❈ ❈ ❈

Walking for Truth: Snapshots from a Day with the Bharat Jodo Yatra

Sajan P.K.

A long walk of people is a political act of perseverance. It renounces the lure of instant gratification and advocates caution over hurried conclusions. It seeks consensus through conversations instead of demanding make-believe acceptance through oratory and theatrics.

When my two friends and I joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra on October 15 as it was on its way from Halakundi village to Ballari in Karnataka, we were baffled for a moment about the act of “joining”. How would one become part of something that was structurally fluid?

It was an important day, marking the first 1,000 km of the long journey. Ballari, a couple of kilometres away, was in a festive mood. In the yatra led by Rahul Gandhi were a band of drummers, core yatris in distinctive white attire who will walk the entire 3,750-km route from Kanyakumari to Srinagar and thousands of others who are doing shorter stretches, carrying banners, singing songs and chanting slogans.

Hundreds of people stepped in and out of the yatra at will so it was hard to tell the yatris from the supporters and spectators. Nor could one tell where the tail end of the yatra was. It was not a march with neat rows of participants in synchronised movement wearing identical political insignia.

There was no system to register for the yatra for record one’s presence. Anyone could walk along, walk within or walk behind – all would count for participation, as we realised.

This unregimented nature of the Bharat Jodo Yatra is also its most defining. If one is to walk for the rising concern about the country’s deteriorating divisions, one has to walk in step with others, celebrating heterogeneity.

As Kanhaiya Kumar former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president and Congress member, who is doing the entire march remarked when we walked with him briefly, “How else will you meet and interact with so many people from across the country with an open mind?” Asked if the Yatra would bring about substantial change, he said, “Things are changing anyway, mostly for the worse. We will have to try to make the changes better for everyone.”

In contrast to the command-and-control mobilisation deployed by right-wing parties, the Bharat Jodo Yatra seemed to be devoid of any display of arrogance or authoritarian hubris.

We saw a former Union minister walking unassumingly, while state Congress leaders blended with others in the crowd. Residents of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan spoke animatedly to those from Kerala and Tamil Nadu, everyone managing their language barriers with smiles and gestures.

Despite being at the receiving end of a dedicated troll army through the years and targeted with abuse like few other political leaders before, Gandhi walked with poise. Perhaps he understands that the larger battle is to safeguard truth from the falsehoods that are eroding the pillars of Indian democracy.

In that sense, the Bharat Jodo Yatra is a collective vigil to protect and uphold the truth above all else.

“It is relatively easier to deal with the waste in the physical world compared to the amount of garbage that is being fed into the space between the ears of people everyday,” observed Savita Hiremat, an independent journalist and author of Endlessly Green: Solid Waste Management for Everyone.

Like us, she too had joined the Yatra for a day accompanying her sister Shailaja Hiremat, a Kannada poet, who was walking the entire Karnataka stretch that began from Gundalpet. Savita, with no strong party affiliation, was proud to be associated with the Yatra for its implications for a cleaner political environment and was excited about the opportunity she had to walk alongside Rahul Gandhi earlier in the day.

We met a few Muslim clergy members in Ballari, who spoke passionately about the long history of religious harmony in the region and how there had been unsuccessful attempts recently to disturb it. “Rahul Gandhi’s presence and the Bharat Jodo Yatra have evoked a great deal of optimism in people and it is slowly bubbling up to something big,” said Syed Olibasha.

Shinaj Shajahan from Kerala, who has worked in West Asia for over a decade, has been a Congress sympathiser but with no active involvement with the party. He took 40 days of leave to travel with the Yatra.

Too early to tell?

It remains unclear whether the spirit of the yatra will resonate far enough to reach those with no pre-disposition towards the Congress. In Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, social workers, writers and academics without any pro-Congress leanings joined the yatra, but Kerala stuck to its known political loyalties with the yatra receiving a rousing reception mainly mobilised by party workers.

The larger question – tinted with expectation or anxiety, depending on which side of the political spectrum one occupies – is will the Congress see a resurgence?

The response to the first leg of the yatra has been tremendous.

The public meeting in Ballari in the afternoon of October 15 to celebrate the 1,000-km milestone of the yatra drew a phenomenal crowd. Braving barricades on the roads and a slushy ground, over 1.5 lakh participants showed up. More than the numbers, the energy of the crowd, their engagement and being there as they were, many in their work attire, made a strong political statement.

Even so, extrapolating these early signals to infer any immediate change in the nationwide fortunes of the Congress would be premature.

Rahul Rajbhar, a state secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, was nuanced in his expectation. “To regain the trust of Dalits and OBCs [other backward classes] who have been swayed by promises of upward mobility and social status within the Hindu fold, a lot of work needs to be done,” said Rajbhar. “Respect should substitute inducement as the basis of engagement.”

Rajbhar said that with Priyanka Gandhi’s leadership, there is momentum that may reflect in the next Uttar Pradesh state assembly elections. “And it will take another few years before Congress reclaims its lost space, but it is going to happen,” he said.

Upendar Bhardwaj, a Seva Dal volunteer from Rajasthan, also voiced cautious optimism about the party’s election prospects in his state.

The Congress’s hope for a revival from any movement it spearheads is legitimate, but the Bharat Jodo Yatra appears to be designed differently, not to address the party’s immediate political exigency. It seems to stem from the realisation that uniting the country is not a short-term effort that can be achieved through party politics.

Changing public discourse

A long walk is a political act of perseverance. It renounces the lure of instant gratification and advocates caution over hurried conclusions. It seeks consensus through conversations instead of demanding make-believe acceptance through oratory and theatrics. It believes in sanity over frenzy. It offers true mental nourishment. There are signs that it will work eventually.

For instance, the police personnel in Ballari managing traffic diversions and barricades ,who were expected to be on the side of the government, used no force or hostility and even helped those wanting to reach the route of the Yatra.

We ourselves had never walked under a Congress flag. But we are proud that we did, despite still being at a distance from the party. But we know that it is a healthy distance that makes democracy meaningful, which is exactly what the Bharat Jodo Yatra seeks to accomplish.

(Sajan P.K. began his career covering the 1996 general elections for Doordarshan and, after short stints in print and online journalism, switched to corporate communications. Courtesy: Scroll.in.)

❈ ❈ ❈

Groundswell of Support, a Happy Energy: Eight Hours with the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Ballari

Abhilash Prabhakaran

All the roads in Ballari had been barricaded from the morning on Saturday, the day Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra entered the city. Yet, all roads were leading to the Municipal Ground at Ballari as people poured into the public meeting that Gandhi addressed later in the afternoon.

Streams of people, sombre-looking women and men, playful children, and enthusiastic youth, in small groups and larger processions, which were often accompanied by drummers, chanting “jodo jodo, Bharat Jodo”, unite, unite India, flowed down the streets of the city.

Three of us from Bengaluru had decided to join one of the last laps of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Karnataka for half a day. We believe it is a historic event in Indian politics and has the potential to change the Congress’s fortunes. For us, joining the Yatra was both an act of solidarity and an opportunity to feel the mood of the people.

We couldn’t find a hotel room in Ballari so we had to stay in Hospete, about 60 km east. But as we drove towards Ballari early on Saturday, we were stopped by the police at the barricades that had been erected on the main road leading to the city. Only vehicles with VIP passes were allowed into the city, they told us. There were many vehicles carrying Congress workers from neighbouring areas and all of us were asked to take the road to the starting point of the Yatra for that day.

We decided to try to find an alternative route into the city. An auto driver helped us find our way to the bus stand parking and then, ferried us towards the route of the Yatra.

Even though it was only 7.30 am and the Yatra was still a couple of kilometres away, there were people waiting on both sides of the road to cheer the Yatra, many carrying flags, placards, and banners and some carrying flowers to shower on the Yatra. There was anticipation and excitement in the air. True to the message of the Yatra, people of different castes, religions, and classes stood shoulder to shoulder and patiently waited.

There was indeed an organic charm to the whole thing, and the movement was noticeably devoid of any traces of aggression, which has become the hallmark of political movements these days. The message was against hate and was about love and unity – and a cursory look at the crowd and the Yatra would tell you that unity isn’t used as a byword for uniformity.

As the Yatra made its way through the streets of Ballari city, we could see happy, cheerful faces everywhere. Bystanders told us they were doing their bit to help redeem this country by joining the Yatra – a sentiment that we shared and inspired us to take the more than 700-km round trip to be part of it.

One thing the huge success of the Yatra so far seems to underline is that Rahul Gandhi still enjoys the trust of people who want to save India from the clutches of hate. No other leader could have pulled off something of this scale without the support of a cadre-based organisation.

A telling example of Gandhi’s popularity was when everyone in the restaurant in which we were having lunch, including the women staff, cleaning staff, waiters, and diners, ran to the main road when the “jodo jodo Bharat jodo” chant was heard. Disappointment was writ large on their faces when they realised that it was just another procession making its way towards the meeting venue and not one led by Rahul Gandhi.

As we walked around Ballari, we could see groups of people on almost all roads and by-lanes leading to the meeting venue. The venue under the huge shamiana that seemed to have seating arrangements for a hundred thousand started filling up by noon. There was a festive mood, a spirit that felt familial and spiritual more than masculine or aggressive.

The eight hours we spent Ballari were an exhilarating experience. Rahul Gandhi has definitely helped galvanise the Congress in at least two of the states – Kerala and Karnataka – he has so far covered as part of the Yatra.

The tremendous support the Yatra has got in Karnataka will make the turncoats who jumped ship from the Congress in 2019 jittery and clearly indicates that even though many leaders have deserted the party, voters haven’t. It is a shot in the arm for Congress in Karnataka that goes to polls in less than six months.

If the local leadership retains this momentum for the next few months, state Congress chief DK Shivakumar’s claim of being able to win 150 seats looks quite realistic. There seems to be a groundswell in favour of Congress and that comes from both social and economic factors.

The mainstream media, unfortunately, has been playing down the Yatra. Some believe that the section of the media that supports the government is hoping that a lack of coverage could slow down the momentum and prevent it from growing further.

But the people in the media would do well to remember that they cannot ignore what is happening on the ground for long. Rahul Gandhi is going to the people directly, and you cannot fool people who see it for themselves.

(Abhilash Prabhakaran is a former journalist who now works as a communication professional. Courtesy: Scroll.in.)

❈ ❈ ❈

Two Days on a Yatra; That Tiny Glimmer

Dilip D’Souza

One day on the Bharat Jodo Yatra, we found ourselves with a group of people we had met while we walked. This was in the afternoon break between the two sessions of brisk walking. We were sitting on chairs outside two enormous tents. One had dozens of cots on which the Yatra’s yatris were resting. The other had long tables at which people sat to eat a simple lunch, served to them on bright green banana leaves.

Finished with lunch, our new friends were discussing why they had joined the Yatra. Mohan, a squat man with a greying beard, seemed to be working through his reasons right there and then, musing: “You know, I’ve been anti-Congress all my life! So why am I here at all?” He stopped to collect his thoughts. “But it’s just that now there’s this assault on Indian democracy,” he said. Several people nodded. Nobody needed Mohan to spell out what he meant. He went on: “So I want to defeat that and save democracy.”

He seemed suddenly aware of the full weight of what he had just said. Then: “It’s much better that we start getting organized a year-and-a-half before the elections, instead of only a month before.” Several others nodded again.

Soon after, Mohan got up to leave. After two days with the Yatra, he and his friends were returning home that afternoon. It was only after he disappeared that I realised I had not actually said ‘bye. For I had been sitting there, lost in thought spurred by what he had said.

Yes, this Yatra is happening a year-and-a-half before the next Lok Sabha elections. Yes, it seems a largely Congress show. Yes, Rahul Gandhi dominates the coverage. Yes, there are questions about the Yatra’s purpose and meaning, even among the small group I had come with. But with all that, there’s still an over-riding focus among many who join the Yatra: never mind past disagreements, never mind the need to hold your nose if you have to – for there’s a shared imperative here: to stand up to the party in power today.

Seen that way, it’s an ironic reminder of an earlier moment in our history. That’s when a group of parties came together – looking past disagreements and holding their noses – to form a coalition to front up to the party in power then. I refer to 1977, of course. Ironic, because the shared imperative then was to stand up to the party then in power – the Congress. And that year, the motley Janata coalition managed to dislodge the Congress from power.

It’s not clear that the Bharat Jodo Yatra can build up momentum and strength on that 1977 scale. But in some ways, and at least for now, that was irrelevant.

One face of the Yatra is the Congress. It’s a party in some disarray and depression, you might say, because of its nosediving political fortunes over the last several years. It has lost elections, it has lost veteran Congresswallahs, it has factions sniping at each other. If this Yatra is a way to rebuild political capital, to galvanize Congress activists, to show the Indian voter that this party will not roll over and fade away – well, for anyone who values Indian democracy, that’s welcome.

But another face of the Yatra is the diversity of people who join. There are those like Yogendra Yadav and Mohan above, known and severe critics of the Congress in the past. But there are also the people bringing their own incredibly varied palette of issues to the Yatra. I mean LGBTQ activists and farmers, manual scavengers and schoolkids, unemployed youth and nomadic tribes and many more. Again, if this Yatra is a vehicle for them to bring their concerns to the attention of the Congress, but also to the country as a whole – well, that’s welcome too. Because to me, this rich, colourful diversity is the authenticity and promise of India itself. This is what breathes spirit and life into the Yatra.

And why was I there? Partly because something like this gets my journalistic antennae quivering sharply. I wanted to simply watch and observe, in some sense not even really invested in the success or otherwise of the Yatra. Partly too, this was something I felt I had to do to stand up to the divisiveness, the hatreds, the polarisations that are marking out and deepening so many faultlines in this country. My solidarity with – luxuriating in, more like it – the diversity of India may mean very little in any broader sense. But it means a great deal to me, and that’s what took me to the Yatra.

But I was also accompanying a small group of public health professionals. Two of them, Ramani and Ravi, are doctors trained in community health and have worked in primary health care for years in rural Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Their friends and colleagues Guru and Prasanna are not doctors, but have worked with public health outreach organizations for years as well.

Working together over several days before we joined the Yatra, the four of them had prepared a brief on public health concerns – malnutrition, right to health care, and more. Their goal was to hand the brief over to the Congress leaders in the Yatra, including Rahul Gandhi. (They gave it to me to read and I had a couple of minor suggestions, which is why they added my name to the brief.) Through various contacts, there was actually a meeting scheduled – during the midday break on Monday October 10th – with Gandhi and others, where our group would present the brief. That was cancelled. Instead, the organisers arranged for us to walk with Gandhi for a while that morning.

Once we were positioned alongside him and walking, Prasanna and Ramani spoke to Gandhi about the brief. I should say straight up here that I’m terminally cynical about politicians, and especially at a moment like this when Gandhi was surrounded by surging crowds calling his name and wanting photos. It’s a measure of my cynicism that I honestly did not expect him to really pay attention to us. But even while waving out every now and then and acknowledging the crowd, he listened closely to Prasanna and Ramani. He asked a series of questions, making them back up their data and conclusions.

One example: Ramani mentioned her experience with migrant workers in Rajasthan. They get injured at work and try to get the free care that is available in that state. But because their Aadhar card is from Bihar, say, they are denied treatment. Why should that be? But Gandhi asked, well, how will a state cope if floods of people from another state come in to take advantage of the announced free care?

After a while, I took the chance to speak about my book “The Deoliwallahs: The True Story of the 1962 Chinese-Indian Internment”. I said to him that while I admired and respected his great-grandfather, this imprisonment of 3000 Chinese-Indians was one mistake he made. My co-author Joy Ma, I pointed out, was born in the camp and spent her first four years there. The Chinese-Indian community is longing for an acknowledgement of and apology for this injustice. Gandhi listened carefully, and asked me to send him a copy of the book.

We remarked how well the Yatra was organised. Gandhi said that was true, but organisation and mobilisation were two different things, and going forward, the mobilisation would be the test. Guru suggested he do an east-west Yatra too. Gandhi laughed and asked: “Will you join me then? All 3000 km?” Guru laughed in turn and said he would.

Just as we were moving off to the side to leave the cordon around Gandhi, he turned to Ravi and said: “Hey, I didn’t hear from you. Is there something you want to tell me?” So Ravi spoke to him. He urged that if and when the Congress returns to power, it should pay attention to health care. In particular, it should ensure that health care is not completely privatised, because that will take it out of reach of the great majority of poor Indians.

Of course we were glad for our time with Rahul Gandhi. But that was just the icing, really. It was the full experience of our two days with the Yatra that really left us stimulated and encouraged. In what is otherwise a time of hate and darkness, it lit, in the words of a friend, “a tiny glimmer of hope in our hearts.”

(The author is a writer in Mumbai. Courtesy: Newsclick.)