In politics, who should lead a
particular political outfit, what should be their political agenda, what should
be their policies regarding the various economic, social and international
issues – is entirely their internal matter. Likewise, the padayatra of Congress
leader Rahul Gandhi is entirely an internal matter of the Congress. But now
that Rahul Gandhi is touring the different districts of different states of the
country and posing for pictures with people walking with him emoting different
sentiments, we cannot avoid taking a look at this Congress’ internal matter in
public domain. Rahul Gandhi’s padayatra is coined ‘Bharat Jodo yatra’ –
probably the purpose being two-fold. Either he must be touring to try and
connect with people across the country and to take his party right up to the
last person or probably he is trying to prove his leadership. Whatever may be
the reason, I wish to dwell into it. And hence, even if this padayatra is
Congress’ internal matter, it has now become a public affair.
After touring various states in
Southern India, Rahul Gandhi’s padayatra is now progressing towards Central
India. In the first week of November, his padayatra will reach Maharashtra
where he will visit a few places and then march ahead. In the past few days,
there has been a set pattern – during this yatra across different villages
Rahul Gandhi is seen lifting up a few children on his shoulder or trying to
strike conversations with a few women or even posing with the youth for
photographs. All of this is being done for a reason. Since the past few years,
questions are being raised about this Gandhi-scion’s leadership abilities and
in general about the future leadership within the Congress.
It may be recalled that recently,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several other Bharatiya Janata Party leaders
had, time and again, aggressively raised the issue of nepotism in politics and
how it is posing a threat to democracy. Congress leaders seem to have aroused
and hence there have been several changes within the Congress. People are not
only questioning Rahul Gandhi’s leadership capabilities but are also not sure
whether he is only taking ahead the legacy of Gandhi-Nehru dynasty. This led to
a vertical split even in the top leadership within the party. While many
leaders were prepared to quit the party; some already parted their ways while
others continued to stay within the party but kept raising their discontent.
Never before had anyone showed the courage to challenge the leadership of the
Gandhi-Nehru dynasty so openly within the Congress. In fact, those who had
tried to overthrow the leadership of this dynasty, had to either remain
insignificant within the party or were shown the way out of the party. Sharad
Pawar is a prominent example known to all. Since he did not receive the desired
support from the Congress, Sharad Pawar set up his own political outfit. But
when he realised that he did not enjoy the status of an independent entity, he
again sought help from the Congress. Even Sharad Pawar could not form an
independent government anywhere in the country. And when he realised this, he
accepted an alliance and joined hands with the Congress. Hence, it reaffirms
the perception that Gandhi-Nehru dynasty was the bedrock of Congress’ ideology.
This ideology became entrenched and later when the issue of nepotism in
politics came to the fore, the uneasiness within the Congress erupted.
This led to the G-23 group openly
questioning the leadership. Senior Congress leaders openly began admitting in
their interviews that a naïve and immature leader like Rahul Gandhi is not able
to challenge Modi’s strong leadership. Congress was forced to review Rahul
Gandhi’s leadership especially after the party’s turmoil in electoral politics
over the past decade. Doubts were also raised about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership
qualities. This coupled with Sonia Gandhi’s health issues took a toll on the
party. Now only on the basis of Gandhi-Nehru dynasty rule, Rahul Gandhi will
not be able to retain the supreme position in the party. Also, his leadership
qualities and the party’s sagging image at the national level could not be revived
on the insistence of some of his loyalists. And hence, the Congress was forced
to undergo an organisational reshuffle for the first time in 24 years.
Although Mallikarjun Kharge, a
senior leader outside the Gandhi family, was given the party president’s post,
still the loyalists are trying to prove Rahul Gandhi’s leadership capabilities.
And the Bharat Jodo padayatra is a part of this effort only. This reaffirms
that it is an intra-party organisational matter of the Congress. Even earlier,
Congress had made several attempts to secure widespread public support for
Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. Sometimes they preached that he has tied a janeu
(sacred threat) while at other times they declared that he is a
Dattratreyagotri Brahmin. At times they advertised that he is a Shiv Bhakt,
while on some other occasions they made him visit and got him to perform
Vaishno Devi’s puja. Despite adopting various measures, the Congress failed to
achieve the desired results. Now if the Congress’ intent is to re-establish
this Gandhi-scion’s leadership, then again it is completely the party’s issue,
isn’t it?
In this country, any leader from
any political party can tour anywhere across the country in order to build the
party organisation or to enhance his leadership. Since both these issues are
concerned with its influence on public mind hence the fate of Congress also
will be solely dependent on how Rahul Gandhi’s padayatra succeeds in garnering
support from the people. In fact, it is now clear that the Congress also does
not seem to consider Rahul Gandhi as an alternative for national leadership.
This seems to be an attempt to highlight Rahul Gandhi’s leadership qualities
and to bring the party supremo position back to the family almost after 25 long
years. This is one among the various efforts initiated to ensure that the
Congress suffers the least during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Looking at the overall scenario, it
seems that the Congress has lost the ability to come to power on its own. Also,
Congress’ efforts to join hands with non-BJP parties or parties that are ready
to accept Congress’ ideologies to come up as an alternative to the BJP, has
also failed. Hypothetically, even if we consider that they are successful in
creating an alliance against the BJP in the Opposition, what is interesting to
know is that how many leaders of the other parties will be able to accept Rahul
Gandhi’s leadership. And hence, Congress is trying hard through this Bharat
Jodo yatra to portray that it has the support from the people right from down
South to up North. But in this process, the Congress needs to have sufficient
numbers to express its opinion in the probable alliance in the Opposition.
This yatra seems to have ignored
the issues of corruption raised by the Modi government. Various financial
misappropriations of organisations affiliated with members of the Gandhi family
came under the radar of the investigative agencies. Also, questions are being
raised about the pecuniary
interests of the members of the
Gandhi family. Are the citizens of India so naïve that they will ignore these
matters and will get carried away by this so-called yatra on sentimental
grounds? The success of this padayatra could be that after Rahul Gandhi returns
to Delhi after completing his yatra the party’s president’s post might bow down
before him. But that will be their internal matter. The real litmus test will
be the Lok Sabha elections.
(Article pre-published in Times of India online 31 Oct. 2022)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
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