Calling on India to stand together, Rahul Gandhi and his companions are reaching to the final point of a historic 5 months long 3,500 KM walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. I believe the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi will be one of the best highlights in his political career.
An all-India walk lasting nearly five months is really a remarkable mass movement in recent Indian political history. There will be many who mock and disparage this journey. Maybe there was no media support. But one thing is sure. The BJY raises a glimmer of hope for such a kind of dynamism which India’s people wanted to see from the opposition but couldn’t see after the Sangh Parivar came to power. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every human being who is at least aware of the tragedy that India has reached today to support such a movement at any level. Rahul Gandhi has announced that he will raise three important issues in this Yatra.
1) The sharpest inflation in 35 years.
2) The situation in which the Income of 97 percent of Indians is declining and India’s wealth is reaching to a handful corporate tycoons.
3) The worst unemployment in the last four decades.
It is not so easy to shift the focus of the discussion from the communal political environment where religion, caste, temples, mosques and graveyards are the only topics of discussion to the real issues facing by India, but Rahul Gandhi and the Indian National Congress are going to take a big step to that direction. The news we read in last few months is that Gautam Adani is one of the three richest people in the world. Adani is behind Tesla founder Elon Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $137 billion. A comparison between his wealth before Modi came to power and what he has now will give an accurate other side of the present situation of poor people in India. It is an industrial empire growing in India which is becoming larger than the country through the crony capitalism sponsored by the Sangha Parivar, controlling not only India’s public sector institutions, airports and harbors, but also even banks and media institutions. The contradiction that only a few corporates grows while small scale industries and enterprises continue to collapse, farmers and agricultural crops suffer, and India’s position on the World Index of Hunger worsens per years.
Hopefully Bharat Jodo Yatra will open at least small windows of such discussions. In India, where even a remote alternative to fight against the BJP and the Sangh Parivar has not been formed yet, when there is even a small movement from the opposition raises, even if it is weak, even if it is limited, it has to be supported. The message of Bharat Jodo Yatra is an alternative of unity against the politics of fear, against the politics of alienation. Rahul described this Yatra as a long battle to unite the people of this country.
Yogendra Yadav, who supports Bharat Jodo Yatra, explains his experience: “A change in public response to this campaign is now evident. Bharat Jodo Yatra had a very low-key start. When we started our journey from Kanyakumari on 7th September, we faced prejudice, and ignorance about this journey. I remember a senior journalist calling inquiring if this was a padayatra. No one knew what this journey was for. ‘Will these Congress leaders walk like this? Is Rahul Gandhi joining the yatra sometime? Or is it going throughout? Just before leaving for the Yatra I visited some family friends. Their disapproval of my joining the Yatra was very evident. Yogendra ji, you are risking your reputation. We know you are not going to join Congress. But, at this time, sticking to this party is like kissing death,’ she said. But after a month of Bharat Jodo Yatra, Things have changedto a lot. It cannot be said whether this will change the mind of an entire nation. But the journey has undoubtedly been able to initiate ‘something beneficial’. I heard something positive many times”
There is one fact that is acceptable for all those who agree or disagree with Rahul Gandhi politically, it is that Rahul Gandhi is the first national leader who can be trusted in his stand against the BJP. We see many other leaders softening their positions under threats and temptations, but Rahul Gandhi has not taken a step back. Rahul Gandhi has the features of Mahatma Gandhi who stood fearlessly before the British. In 1 91 7, at the age of forty-seven, Gandhiji came to the leadership of India’s freedom struggle with only self-confidence. Gandhiji started when the British stood empire with sun never sets and the Hindutva followers stood as a force that can never be broken. Gandhiji led India to freedom only because of his unshakable faith in truth and justice. It is the similar situation in the country, instead of the ‘white/ Saips, the black/ Saips are draining the country, Savarkar and his followers who worked to destroy the country for the British have been revived as Modi and his followers. The strategy of divide and rule is the same one they are using again after a hundred years. The followers of those who said then don’t waste your energy fighting against the British but fight against internal enemies are still making the same voice today, they are nowhere to be seen as helpful to India, their mission is only to spread lies and hate and kill people on the name of community.
There is a question Gandhiji faced when he came out on the streets against the British with his bare hands. What did he see to do like this..? From whom..? Rahul Gandhi also faced the same question when he decided for the Yatra at the age of 52. Rahul Gandhi knows that there are many parties with him are ready to jump to the other side if they get a good offer, the regional opposition parties have often made peace with the BJP, they do not disagree with Hindutva either ideologically or fundamentally. Rahul Gandhi knows that there is a possibility that they may make peace with the BJP at any moment, Mahatma Gandhi also knew this, many of those who stood with him have made peace with the British and have become allies.
Gandhiji started his campaign with the sole belief that the common people of India would understand him, Rahul Gandhi also has the same belief. Money, power, manpower, gangsterism, strategists, media are all on the other side, only truth and confidence are with Rahul Gandhi.
The people of the country need to be extremely vigilant in following days and every democratic believer has an obligation to support the efforts of Rahul Gandhi and the Indian National Congress to maintain a pluralistic India. Optimism is the first step to success. If our forefathers were able to bring the then world power British Empire to its knees, we can also bring Corporate-Hinduism to its knees. we Indians are being divided into two factions, the followers of Gandhi and the followers of Godse, the supporters of Manusmriti and supporters of the Indian governance, the supporters of Hindutva India and the supporters of plural India.
Now we have to decide which side we are on, we are on the side of Gandhiji, we are on the side of plural India, we are on the side of Indian constitution, we have to stand with Rahul Gandhi, we have to wish for his success, we have to work for Rahul Gandhi, we have to pray. Let the Bharat Jodo Yatra evolve into a people’s struggle to reclaim India, let the country rise for the pluralistic India dreamed of by Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru and Azad, and let the strongholds of corporate-communal devils.
written by Ismail Olavattur
