The hyped roadshow by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi ended on January 30 in Srinagar.
The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ had its whimsical episodes vis-a-vis a few statements from Rahul Gandhi.
The most striking was on January 8 2023, at Samana in Haryana.“Rahul Gandhi is in your head. I have killed him. He does not exist anymore. He is not in my mind. He is gone. Gone,” the Kerala MP had said. “The person you are seeing is not Rahul Gandhi,” he had told, perhaps ventilating his intention for an image makeover. A section of media, including from overseas, obliged him readily.
“Marching across India, Rahul Gandhi aims to repair Congress party’s image,” ran a Reuters story headline.
The story also carried in a Pakistani newspaper, said, “The 52-year-old, a fitness buff with a thick salt-and-pepper beard, walks about 25 km (15 miles) per day, stopping for the night in a trailer van that moves with him”.
Well, the culmination of the Yatra to emerge as a legitimate claimant as the face of the opposition in 2024 has come a cropped.
The RJD has been a longtime friend of Congress ever since Lalu Prasad’s corruption hit and lawlessness Governance days. Yet the Bihar-based party gave Rahul’s Bharat Jodo Yatra a total miss.
Another seasonal friend and opportunist alliance, JD (U) of Nitish Kumar, also from Bihar, stayed away from the former Congress chief’s show, including the last day session. To the shock of Team Rahul and grand old party fans, out of 23 parties invited to turn up to mark the end of Rahul’s Yatra, as many as 15 kept a safe distance.
“In the end, there was no clinching of hands showcasing Opposition unity, nor a dramatic show of support,” lamented a report in a leading English newspaper. The plan fell flat. ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ planners had thought otherwise.
Not long ago, former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh had said – “You will see the meeting in Srinagar on January 30… the aim (of the meeting) is that the Bharat Jodo Yatra is over… What is the next step to be taken in the context of the 2024 elections… there will be some discussions on that”.
But nothing of that sort happened. Finally, eight opposition parties attended the Srinagar event. DMK’s Tiruchi Siva, CPI general secretary D Raja, the National Conference’s Omar Abdullah, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, RSP’s N K Premachandran, and the IUML’s K Navas Kani were present and also there were representatives of the JMM and the VCK.
Except for DMK, this is the only party that can be a significant player in 2024.
The Bharat Jodo — ‘Unite India’ journey was marred by controversies and some sidelights. The Congress’ star campaigner’ and the Bharat Jodo protagonist Rahu Gandhi had even stayed away during the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections. It was the dynasty’s experiments with yet another chapter of truth’ — let’s see what happens if ‘Rahul baba’ stays away, and can we call it a great masterstroke.
Instead, the BJP recorded a landslide victory in Gujarat — a pocket borough of PM Narendra Modi, where the Congress had put up a brilliant fight in 2017. The Himachal win was also generally attributed to local factors and the basic factor that the electorate throws out any Government after every five years.
There’s another twist in the tale. BSP MP Shyam Singh Yadav, who walked with Rahul when the Yatra crossed Delhi, also attended the Srinagar event on January 30. Sources in the BSP, however, said Singh — the MP from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh — was not authorized to attend the event as a BSP representative.
In November, there were a few controversial episodes and speeches.He flayed Veer Savarkar during the Maharashtra leg of his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra.’On November 15, 2022, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the freedom fighter took a pension from the British Government.
Two days later, he reiterated that Veer Savarkar helped the British Government and wrote mercy petitions “out of fear”.Media reports said on November 16, 2022, the Yatra Nepalese National Anthem was played instead of Indian National Anthem.“Furthermore, Rahul Gandhi and other leaders on the stage kept calling it the National Song while the National Anthem, ‘Jana Gana Mana,’ was supposed to be played,” says OpIndia.com.
Security breach row!
Contrary to attempts to trigger controversies, Rahul Gandhi himself violated security guidelines. During the ‘Delhi leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the protectee broke security guidelines, and CRPF officials said they would take up the matter separately. Since 2020, there have been 113 such violations.
Just as the Congress party has sought to trigger a row over ‘security issues’ related to party leader Rahul Gandhi, CRPF sources said that contrary to allegations on several occasions “, violations of laid down guidelines” on the part of Shri Gandhi had been observed.
“Security arrangements made for the protectee work fine when the protectee himself adheres to the security guidelines laid down. However, on several occasions violations of laid down guidelines on the part of Shri Rahul Gandhi has been observed,” a source said.
Since 2020, there have been 113 violations observed and duly communicated.
The critical observations of the security agencies and CRPF have also been communicated to the Congress MP from time to time.
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