Walking with Rahul: For a Politics of Grace, Compassion, Togetherness
The Bharat Jodo Yatra began on September 7 in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. Just before the long walk, there was a small prayer meeting at the Gandhi Mandapam in which some of my students sang multi-faith hymns. Ever since then, I have followed the Yatra as it travelled through Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and onward. Civil society members like myself grappled with the question of our participation in it. The Yatra is led by Rahul Gandhi and organised by the Indian National Congress. Does our participation mean we subscribe to the Congress ideology in its entirety? Does it strip us of our political independence? Will it affect people’s perception of us?
But, right from the outset, it was clear that this was not a campaign rally. The messaging was inarguably universal, welcoming and non-exclusive. It was an invitation to everyone who believed in a democratic and secular India. A call to all to awaken from moral stupor. India’s dangerously steep downward political curve that has normalised hate has to be arrested. Hence, it is imperative that we participate in any movement that calls for social embrace and conscientious action. Rahul must be applauded for walking the talk. If we do not join the Yatra, we are failing the nation and, above that, betraying our conscience.
Liberal intellectuals, who have been critical of the Congress and its dependence on its ‘first family’, have been asking for the collapse of the Congress’s present framework. But that does not mean one needs to trivialise what is a genuine exercise in nation-building. Their ignoring the Yatra is as unacceptable as the BJP-dominated media keeping it out of the news.
I joined the Yatra for an afternoon in Agar, Madhya Pradesh, in early December, just a day before it crossed over into Rajasthan. The atmosphere radiated positivity and happiness. Though there were hardened Congress supporters who just wanted to catch a glimpse of Rahul or get a picture with him, there were also many who participated because of what the ‘walk’ signified. An act of coming together that dissolved our differences, even if only for a morning or an afternoon. This was evident in the little stories of coming together and the need for harmony that members of the public shared with Rahul as we walked. There was not an iota of hate or negativity toward any person, political outfit or community. No hateful sloganeering. The large embrace of the fast-moving Yatra was beautiful. I also heard how people from a village in Maharashtra felt that communal tensions had subsided during the days the Yatra passed through their region.
Rahul’s demeanour and accessibility has certainly contributed to the warmth that is overflowing in the Yatra. Despite the many pulls and pushes from people, he not only remained calm, but more importantly listened to every single person he came across respectfully. A person of the Islamic faith tried breaking through the cordon. When the security stopped him forcefully, his cap fell off. Rahul asked that he be let through and helped to find and retrieve that symbol of his faith. These little acts of kindness were wonderful to witness. They may not mean anything in the larger scheme of things, but when we discuss political leadership, goodness of heart must matter.
My conversations with Rahul were centred around the need to give societal agency back to the people. That we need to be driving cultural change that rejects passivity and the subjugation of the mind and cultivates harmonious and sensitive co-existence. It was evident that he has realised that cultural transformation is at the core of inculcating democratic values. For too long now, we have neglected cultural realisations, dialogues and habits. It is not enough for us to recognise that we are a deeply divided society and put systems in our Constitution that address this issue. This needs to be translated into collective public action, education, and celebration. I believe that the Bharat Jodo Yatra can be the first step in this direction.
Columnists and political opponents will want to measure the Yatra’s success. It may not translate into votes for the Congress. For this to translate into anything fruitful for the party, there is a need for serious changes within. But I wonder if the Congress is ready to accept this new form of politics initiated by Rahul. A politics that is not trapped purely in electoral gains and challenges hierarchies within its leadership. Will an empowered younger generation and a vocal Congress worker be able to push back the ‘old guard’?
Even in larger society, this Yatra may not result in immediate results. But the nature of the discourse that it has triggered is in itself a paradigm shift. For too long, our politics has been offensive, in both senses of the word. To forge ahead with a politics of grace when we are surrounded by shouting, chest-thumping, vulgarity and reactionary abuse is indeed admirable. Rahul, through this Yatra, has provided a more compassionate and delicate political discourse. Walking together with people and taking them along for as long as they want is a beautiful act of togetherness. A collective movement of the mind and heart.
About half a kilometre ahead of us was an old man, in his eighties, walking at a brisk pace. I asked myself, “Why is he here?” Maybe he was an old-time Congress supporter or carried memories of the freedom struggle. I did not speak to him, but I would like to believe that the calling came from within. A need for a new language in politics, to bring back the smiles: not the conniving smile of gleefulness, not the smile of a victor, but the smile of fraternity.
(T.M. Krishna is a musician, author and activist. Courtesy: Deccan Herald.)
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Faith, Courage and Discipline: Conversations with Participants in the Bharat Jodo Yatra
Ramani Atkuri
Away from the surging crowds and the fast-moving group around Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the 3,500-km Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Jammu and Kashmir has a different pace and feel to it . The security ring, the media vans, the exuberant crowds, the police holding the rope to keep people from crowding in too close all produce their own charge of energy and adrenaline. There is a sense of purpose, of urgency. The noise level is high: people calling out to Rahul Gandhi, drums and bands and performances.
A couple of kilometres ahead, it is much quieter. And this is where my friend and I chose to walk a few days ago when we rejoined the Yatra in Rajasthan’s Bhadoti for two days. In October, we had walked with the Yatra in Karnataka, also for two days. It was Day 98 of the march.
There was burst of activity in the morning as various groups started off for the day, settling into a brisk-paced walk. The chill of the early morning air condensed our breath into clouds of vapour. Volunteers, holding aloft the national flag and singing a prayer, led the day’s walk. They walked in lines, in perfect rhythm, each taking turns to hold the national flag. After the prayer, they sang other songs, their voices floating over communities that were coming alive to greet the marchers and the new day.
Another group of walkers was made up of members of civil society, who walked holding a banner “Hum sab Bharat Jodo Yatra ke saath” (All of us are with the Bharat Jodo Yatra). They sang songs too, of protest and of solidarity. These were interspersed with cries of “Nafrat Chodo, Bharat Jodo” (Give up hate, and unite India), among others.
Bands played in some villages. One had a dance performance on stage at 6 in the morning. We passed though hamlets and villages where people lined the roads in welcome and in curiosity. Some showered rose petals on us and as we walked. I felt like a fraud as I was participating for only for two days.
We walked with these groups, and also by ourselves, catching up with some Yatris and being overtaken by others. Some were Bharat Yatris we had met in Karnataka in October and they greeted us like old friends. (These are Yatris, mostly from the Congress party, who had been chosen after a rigorous selection process to walk the length of the country.) We walked together for a while and they shared their views on the recent state election results from Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh; on the challenges facing the Congress; and how they need to organise themselves better.
One said that the party must be very sure what it stands for and not waver from it, even if it costs them electorally in the near future. A long-term vision and plan are necessary, she said.
There were many other people in the yatra too, unknown and unrecognised. They were not the Bharat Yatris, but had joined the Yatra anyway, either to walk the entire country, or for some time. Who were they, and what makes them walk for days in this Yatra?
Birendra Bhagoriya from Hissar (Mr Flag Man in my mind) is one of the people walking the length of the country. Walking with the civil society members, he holds the national flag on a tall staff, and makes it a point to shake the hand of every child who is “left out”. He has fought for the rights of farmers and Dalits for years.
Mohit Pahadiya is from Bharatpur in Rajasthan and has been walking with the Yatra since the time it entered the state. He intends to walk with Yatra as long as he is allowed to. He is a member of the Youth Congress and was involved in organising food and transport for stranded migrant workers during the first Covid lockdown of 2019.
Why are you walking, I asked. I want to help fight against the religious and caste-based differences being promoted in the country he said. And to teach myself to be patient and tolerant and accommodating. Pahadiya is 26.
Also 26 is Renuka Malviya from Ujjain. She had been walking since November 23 from Bodarli in Burhanpur district in Madhya Pradesh, when the Yatra entered that state. She intended to walk only for two days, but kept extending her journey. When the Yatra crossed into Rajasthan, she continued. So here she was on the December 14, having walked for 22 days already, and still walking. (As I wrote this on Christmas Day, she had just returned to Ujjain from Delhi, and intended to return to the Yatra on January 3.)
Malviya is a lawyer by profession and helps Dalit women seek legal redress for their problems, starting with filing FIRs in the police station. She said she was walking because the condition of Dalits continues to be very bad. Walking in the Yatra, she draws strength from meeting other individuals and groups who are fighting a similar cause. It also enabled her to establish contact with a larger group of people who she could turn to for help in her work. In Madhya Pradesh. she walked alone but now walked with the group of civil society Yatris.
Petite and bespectacled, Hoimee Dey had traveled from Kolkata to join the Yatra. She is a manager in an small firm, and had asked for leave to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra. When leave was refused, she resigned and came to Rajasthan to join the Yatra.
“I will get a job when I return but such an opportunity will not come again,” she said. “I do not like what is happening in the country, and the hate being spread; so I had to join and protest.” She intended to walk till Srinagar if she is allowed to, and walked with volunteers of the Congress Seva Dal.
Neelotpal is a student in a law college in Jaipur. Already interested in Gandhian thought, the Yatra attracted him because it was a different kind of andolan or agitation: one that required equal participation from everyone involved. “Everyone is walking,” he said, “from Rahulji to the chief ministers and Yogendraji [activist Yogendra Yadav] and all of us. There is no hierarchy of some traveling in comfort.”
He said that he liked the fact that pertinent issues were being raised, and that there was critique of ideology without personal attacks on anyone. “For me personally, it was exertion for a cause, and as I told my friend, putting my money where my mouth is,” he said. “Walking two weeks in not very comfortable conditions required a certain level of discipline.”
For Neelotpal, one of the best things about the Yatra was meeting many Gandhians who work without self-interest. He walked with the Yatra through Rajasthan and Haryana and returned home after walking for 14 days.
Walking alone between two villages with the road stretching before me in between fields of mustard, I saw I had another 5 km to go before the morning halt. I was alone. There were no other people around apart from the Yatris strung out along the road. I wondered what it takes to do this day after day after day for over a hundred days? Certainly it must take an enormous amount of faith, courage and discipline.
(Ramani Atkuri is a public health physician who has worked extensively with rural and tribal communities in Central India. Courtesy: Scroll.in.)
