Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party have achieved what they attempted at and in a spectacular manner. He has raised the National Flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar, Kashmir, after braving several odds and a punishing schedule through his Bharat Jodo Padayatra lasting nearly five months at a stretch. At age 52, Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated that he’s not only young enough to take up the challenging task but also resolute in making it a grand success. At the start of the yatra in September from Kanyakumari, many had wondered whether he was cut out for this task. The huge public response to the yatra through 12 states showed the ground-level might of the Congress even in its post-2014 slumber. A new life has been injected into the rank and file of the Congress.
Those who aspired to write off this tricolour behemoth – in terms of its reach across the nation – are sadly mistaken. Clearly, the fight at the hustings next year would not be a cakewalk for the BJP though Modi might still have the last laugh. Across states, the Bharat Jodo Yatra received a euphoric welcome, dismissing initial assessments that this could be limited to the South where the BJP was not a major force. But, even the rally’s culmination in Kashmir showed a surge that was a revelation in itself. The idea of ‘knitting India’ at a time when divisive and communal forces were majorly at play has obviously impressed the people. This must send out the right signals to the BJP and the hard-core communalists that the way to exist in India is to co-exist, live in harmony and spread the message of brotherhood.
Rahul Gandhi, on his part, seemed to enjoy every moment in this long schedule. Such was the warmth with which the people urged him on. He mixed with the hoi polloi, sat at roadside tea-stalls, communicated with the people around and had a feel of the people’s pulse, their struggles in life. This for him was a discovery of the real India, though far less from the manner that Mahatma Gandhi perfected himself as a leader. When India celebrated its Independence at the midnight hour, the Mahatma was walking in the slums of Noakhali, Bengal, extinguishing the fires of communal fury. By contrast, most politicians drunk with power today revel only at ‘exhorting’ the people from public platforms or at engaging in cat-fights with rival shades. Dressed in spotless white, these bores are a class apart and have no real ‘connect’ with the people, whom they simply “lead” up the garden path. The nation deserves a better class of politicians.