Saeed Naqvi 

 There is a certain poetic power in the politics of renunciation. As an immediate example just look at New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden: how elegantly she stepped out of the Prime Minister’s office into something possibly more permanent like a life of love and family. 

It is difficult to apply the Jacinda model to Rahul Gandhi for two reasons: there is no Prime Ministership to renounce and no one has yet spotted an interest in marital love in his eyes. And yet a renunciation of “conventional” politics becomes Rahul more than a simulated aspiration for an elusive Prime Ministership. 

He may have found his vocation in leading the Bharat Jodo Yatra which has softened the national mood. It would be problematic to invoke in this context the movement inaugurated by Jayaprakash Narayan in the mid-70s. 

The Sunday Story

JP was in political retirement when global and internal interests coalesced to search for a power center other than Indira Gandhi. Détente was going badly for the West. Portuguese decolonization had brought communists directly into power in Angola, Mozambique, and even Ethiopia. Euro communism was bubbling over. Nearer home, Sri Lanka sought Indian military help to quell the JVP (left) revolt in 1971. 

A less-noticed fact in Indian journalism is that communists were already in power in Kerala in 1957 and crawling towards a three-decade-long rule in Bengal and Tripura since the late 60s. 

Indira Gandhi had become dangerous for the West after she split the Congress in 1969 and clasped the hand of communists like S.A. Dange, Secretary General of the CPI. The Times, London’s correspondent Peter Hazlehurst hit the nail on the head: “Indira Gandhi is slightly left of self-interest.” 

The JP movement targeted Indira Gandhi as the centerpiece in the growing pattern of leftism. While the JP movement targeted the left tendencies in the Congress, Bharat Jodo Yatra is creating an atmosphere in which the Congress can politically challenge the right – the obscurantist, divisive core of BJP’s politics. As far as economic policies are concerned, I doubt if much change has come in the thinking of the two major parties from the days of P. Chidambaram as Manmohan Singh’s Finance Minister. At a congregation of economists at the Nehru library, Chidambaram addressing his BJP counterpart, Arun Jaitley seated in the front row said: “there is hardly any difference in our economic policies.” Whatever there is can be easily sandpapered. 

The core Congress interests liaising with the Yatra probably had this in mind when they choreographed former Reserve Bank Governor, Raghuram Rajan seated by the roadside with Rahul even as the Yatra flowed by. Rajan spoke acceptable Hindi too for wider play. He has backers who have long insisted on some sort of second innings for him. I have seen Prannoy Roy of NDTV implore him in Davos: “Please, Sir, come back to India.” 

Rahul’s Yatra is now in its final phase, dedicated to flying the national flag at Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has bitter memories of another flag hoisting in Srinagar by the then BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi in 1992 when militancy was at its peak in the valley. Joshi’s Rath was stalled in Udhampur. Eventually, he had to be flown to Srinagar for the flag hoisting. P.V. Narasimha Rao as Prime Minister was softer on the BJP; the BJP is likely to be on Rahul. Modi was an RSS volunteer accompanying Joshi. Will he concede a point to Rahul? 

After completing the Kashmir leg of the Yatra, Rahul will come under inexorable pressure from those in the Yatra and those waiting in the tent with Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge. In the run-up to the 2024 General Elections, there are nine state elections that, by the narrative of Congressmen, will demand Rahul’s attention. 

Recently, asked how the Yatra has affected him. Rahul gave an astonishing response. “I have killed Rahul Gandhi, he doesn’t exist anymore. The person you are looking at is not Rahul Gandhi – read Hindu scriptures – read about Lord Shiva, and you will understand. Don’t be shocked. Rahul Gandhi is in your head, not mine. He is in the BJP’s head, not mine….” Is this not a dangerous transformation? 

The sheer momentum of walking thousands of miles with adoring crowds will be difficult to terminate. Congressmen aching to extract electoral advantage from a mood-altering event will end up spilling whatever gains Bharat Jodo Yatra has bestowed on the party. Renunciation will begin to look like greed. Rasping Congressmen will ask, “What then was this Yatra for?” Well, to combat the all-pervasive politics of divisiveness and hate. Rahul puts it quite effectively. “I have seen people across caste and communal lines reach out to each other, embrace, converse, share – throughout these miles I have seen no hatred.” He contrasts this mood along the entire stretch of the Yatra to what he watches on national TV. “24X7 Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Muslim.” Some more effort is required for the capitalist controlling the media to note Rahul’s lament. 

The widespread Congress party structure has been enervated by the march. It should be able to extract an advantage from an improved national mood without impeding the Yatra’s momentum. 

And yet, Rahul, after all, is only human, his rapid pushups, and incredible stamina notwithstanding. He can’t be expected to walk endlessly although, at 52, he should keep past stalwarts in mind. Janata Party’s Chandrashekhar undertook a similar journey in chappals at the age of 63. Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 forced him to terminate his yatra. Some transport including the old Congress symbol of yoked bullocks can be brought into play in subsequent laps. In reasonable time the air will be cleansed to accommodate politics of issues not for two parties alone but for a federal India. 

ALSO READ: When 6,00,000 Indians lost power In Fiji, Did India take note?

There is a suggestion that an East to West stretch of the march should be launched from Gandhiji’s birthday on October 2. Those who have bought this idea do not know that the soufflé rises only once and that a bhatura does not inflate twice. 

Saeed Naqvi is a Delhi-based senior journalist