How does an opposition politician seize the initiative in India, a vast and populous country with an increasingly authoritarian ruling party and state?
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu was an opposition politician in Himachal Pradesh which, until December 2022, was a BJP ruled state. Sukhu led a successful election campaign and became Chief Minister even though he belongs to the highly authoritarian- indeed, nakedly dynastic- Congress Party.
Bannerjee knows this. Moreover, being of Bengali heritage, she knows that Mamta is way more authoritarian than Modi. Criticize her and you will get your head kicked in by TMC goons. Yet she writes-
Rahul Gandhi has an answer, and it involves a pair of trainers.
Rahul didn't visit Himachal. That helped Sukhu. To be fair, Rahul also didn't visit Gujarat much but the BJP's campaign was so good, Congress lost a lot of previously safe seats.
Bharat Jodo Yatra, a “journey bringing India together”, is the name of a long march that Gandhi, a prominent member of the Indian National Congress party,
this is like saying the Pope is a prominent Catholic. The raison d'etre of the Congress party is to put a member of the dynasty- or his or her nominee- in the Prime Minister's office. The problem is that Congress doesn't have a viable Prime Ministerial candidate.
has been leading from the country’s southernmost tropical tip to its icy north. He has covered about 1,900 miles (3,000km) so far, walking 12-15 miles every day, with hundreds of others drawn from his party, as well as civil society members and celebrities.
Congress is spending a lot of money on this stunt. One immediate consequence is that Rahul will lose Wayanad because the Muslims there are peeved that their MP keeps going to Temples. It is likely that the Kerala Muslim League will ally with the Communists rather than Congress going forward. Will Stalin accommodate Rahul with a safe seat in T.N? Perhaps not. His own people aren't happy that he calls Rahul 'Sir' and defers to a North Indian Brahmin.
The bigger problem is that Congress is now stuck with Rahul as its Roi fainéant. This means the other opposition parties can't form a coalition with them. Instead they will copy Kejriwal's tactics and seek to cannibalize the Congress vote.
Thousands line the route
coz India has lots of people
wherever the march passes to catch a glimpse of the famous politician and to show support.
or pose for a selfie
Since anyone is allowed to join,
Will Varun join? That is the question. Can the Yatra bring together the two branches of the Gandhi family? It is said that Priyanka has a soft spot for her cousin. It is Sonia who wants to keep her sister-in-law, Maneka, out.
I decided to tag along for two days.
Two whole days! You have to admire the stamina and dedication of professional Social Anthropologists!
My journey began as soon as I alighted at Sawai Madhopur train station in Rajasthan
A Congress ruled State- but for how much longer? Gehlot defied his highly authoritarian party. What will happen to him? What about Sachin Pilot? Is he still as popular as he was in 2019? These are the questions you ask when you are on a train travelling through Rajasthan.
. A young doctor, one of the yatris (marchers), had come to town to collect medicines needed at the camp, but was stranded.
clearly the yatra is badly managed
As we chatted in the car, he said he was deeply worried about the direction the country was taking and wanted badly to be part of something positive.
In which case, he will join Kejriwal's crew sooner or later.
This was the gist of what many other people said to me. No lofty ideological statements, but simple motivations such as: “We can do better than hate.”
Quite true. More and more of them will reject RaGa's politics of hate and reconcile themselves to voting for BJP candidates- but only if no other party offers somebody better.
Why march? There is the historical resonance – Mahatma Gandhi famously marched against British rule in 1930;
No he didn't. He marched against the tax on salt which, however, was reinstituted after Independence.
marching is part of the repertoire of Indian politics.
A repertoire of failure. First there was 'Hijrat' when people sold their property and marched to Afghanistan in obedience to fatwas from the likes of Maulana Azad. They starved there and had to return with their tails between their legs. The Salt March too was a failure. The fact is, it was uneconomic to make salt which is why Princely States- like Gandhi's own Porbandar- didn't bother making salt. Later, Liaquat Ali Khan cunningly got rid of the tax. Its price went up. Under Nehru it was reinstated. Bhave & JP's 'bhoodan' yatras attracted a lot of attention. On paper, the entire state of Bihar had been gifted away. But the whole thing was fraudulent. Various failed politicians like Chandrashekhar had their own pad yatras. But the thing was a stunt even if was dressed up as a 'Shodh Yatra'- i.e. an investigative tour. As Ghalib says 'ek tamasha hua, gila na hua'- there was a spectacle merely; there was no venting of grievance.
On the other hand, Advani's 'Rath Yatra' was a success. Hindus genuinely wanted a big Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
But as Rahul Gandhi has argued, the real reason is that the streets are the only arena left for India’s opposition.
But Congress won Himachal- because Rahul kept away. One reason why the mooncalf's stock has risen is because he skipped the Winter session of Parliament.
That is, in an India where the Modi government has weaponised the police, courts, tax and other enforcement institutions to hound any critic;
Whereas Mamata just has her goons beat or kill them.
where big businesses compete to join the elite ranks of Modi’s billionaire cronies;
No they don't. The Bajajs go out of their way to bait Modi and Shah. This hasn't harmed them at all. Business Houses in Chennai have to please Stalin, while those in Kolkata suck up to Mamta.
and where the mainstream media have become a post-truth foghorn for government,
unless they are a post-truth foghorn against the Government- which might keep journalists safe in Opposition ruled states.
marching en masse is the only way to make visible the fact that many disagree with the ruinous direction in which the government is taking India.
Very true. Getting your candidates elected won't make you visible. Marching is the way to go. It must be admitted that the biggest march- that of the farmers- did yield financial benefits. But, politically, it backfired. Kejriwal swept the Punjab polls. Nobody expected that.
Predictably, the yatra has not been given attention by most of the mainstream media and many Indians away from its route, including in the international diaspora, do not even know it is happening.
It is natural to take no interest in a stunt from which you gain no benefit. The Guardian is only publishing this because of its long standing anti-India bias. But then it doesn't like Rishi Sunak either. That's a good thing- for the Tories.
Each day began at 6am. In Rajasthan, in December, this meant it was pitch dark and bitterly cold.
Just like London.
As we huddled in our shawls and jackets, our bodies warmed with the chants and slogans that began as soon as we set off.
So the lady was chanting and shouting slogans. That warmed her up nicely. I hope she will keep up this salutary practice anytime she feels a bit nippy in Houghton Street.
The first major break came at 10.30am at “camp”: here, hundreds of mattresses, quilts and pillows were laid out for the yatris to rest, with lunch served at an adjoining marquee at 12.
Since Rajasthan is Congress ruled, lots of Government money has been spent on the 'bundobast'.
The whole operation was like the military campaign of a mammoth, non-violent army.
No. It was like a typical bundobast provided by the district administration.
The walk resumed again about 3pm, ending at the day’s finish point marked by a giant helium balloon you could spot a kilometre away.
Rajasthanis are so lucky to be financing these shenanigans.
Women walked in crisp saris, men in the same clothes day after day
men are dirty. Women are nice and clean.
– the variety of languages, backgrounds and temperaments was mind-boggling.
Very true. The Swahili speaking contingent was constantly boggling the minds of the Cantonese delegation.
It was a mini-India that seemed to be on the march.
But India doesn't boggle the minds of Indian origin people. On the other hand, listening to the Mums waiting outside the Primary School down the road, I can hear both Swahili and Cantonese though Urdu is better represented.
We all know this India exists, but rarely get to experience it first hand, all at once.
I experienced little else growing up on Curzon Road in New Delhi.
On the second day, I walked alongside Gandhi.
If Shruti Kapila can get mileage out of the mooncalf, why not this lady?
As in earlier encounters, I found him to be courteous and cerebral, eager for a back and forth conversation.
This is because Kapila and this lady are actually stupider than Rahul and even he understands this.
We debated the usefulness of western political thought in furthering our understanding of Indian politics.
They should have debated whether it was their uselessness or their lack of understanding which made them of value to anti-Indian forces.
It was possible to challenge him and disagree in a way you can’t with most Indian politicians – certainly not with Narendra Modi, who refuses to engage even with press conferences.
Modi saw that walking away from a Karan Thapar interview boosted his popularity.
With Modi, Indian citizens are given the shock and awe strategy of lavish stage-managed events.
A technique patented by the dynasty. Modi just does it better.
In contrast, the sight of Rahul Gandhi, unkempt beard and trainers, walking along surrounded by ordinary people makes for a compelling political image.
This is a 52 year old Saddam Hussein look-alike who is trying to become the Greta Thurnberg of Indian politics. By contrast, Rishi is 42.
It is true, however, that the Congress party’s failure in recent years to win enough elections is also blamed on Gandhi.
Gandhi refused to step up to the plate because autocracy is tempered by assassination. The guy doesn't want to get shot.
He has been accused of being a part-time politician, a reluctant and ineffective president of the party, dubbed “pappu” (a nickname for a young, naive boy) by his opponents. (Rahul is the son of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and grandson of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.)
and great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru. The raison d'etre of Congress is to put a member of the dynasty in the Prime Minister's seat. Sonia was a Regent merely. The trouble is that the anointed heir doesn't want the top job. But, he doesn't want anybody else to have it either. Even Chief Ministers successfully running States are anathema to him. He likes toppling Congress Ministries and making his Party unelectable. That's why he was kept away from campaigning in Himachal.
In opposition, the party organisation had become increasingly moribund, its members demoralised. But the yatra, party workers say, has gone some way in addressing this.
No it hasn't. It has used up resources which should have been ploughed into booth management.
It has given the rank and file a sense of purpose, having organised this enormous roadshow, and suggests that the “pappu” label no longer fits.
There is no evidence of this. The rank and file have been ignored in favor of C-listers from yesteryear. The 'pappu' label doesn't fit a 'dirty Santa' beardie only because 'pappu' is affectionate.
The Congress lost the Gujarat elections (in Modi’s home state) during the yatra but this did not seem to dampen spirits.
Rahul did a bit of campaigning there though his party had been hoping he'd keep away.
The hard work of winning hearts and minds remains to be done.
Sukhu- son of a bus driver- did it in Himachal. He and his people worked harder than the BJP which was disunited and unmotivated.
Rahul showed himself allergic to the hard work involved in being a Minister and exercising power. Going for a long walk might be some sort of health fad. It isn't work. It is either recreation or something suggested by an image consultant.
The last time a yatra caught the imagination, it was the BJP’s LK Advani’s Rath Yatra atop a modified Toyota SUV in the early 1990s.
Only because, as with the farmer's agitation, there was a concrete demand.
Traversing the country, the procession left violence in its wake and led eventually to the destruction of the 16th-century Babri mosque by Hindu mobs.
Not to mention the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11
The current Indian government’s ideology is built on its legacy.
No. Its ideology is built on the notion that Hindus should rule India in a manner pleasing to Hindus. This was also the ideology of the Congress party which, in 1939, Mahatma Gandhi described as a Hindu party.
The yatris I walked with instead held up the image of an alternative India, one of compassion and solidarity.
But Rahul hates the BJP. He thinks 'Hindutva'- ecumenical Hinduism which opposes the Caste system- is very evil. He himself is a janeodhari Saivite Brahmin of Dattatreya gotra who spends a lot of time worshipping in Temples.
The question is which path the Indian population will choose to take?
The Hindu population will continue down the path on which they are on- save in West Bengal where demographic replacement will continue. As for Professors like Shruti or Mukulika, their trajectory is towards utter imbecility. Still, its good to know that there are people stupider than the mooncalf.
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