Bharat Jodo Yatra: Donning the challenger's mantle

Even a fractured opposition with Congress at the helm can challenge the NDA threadbare on the road to the 2024 hustings

When the grand old dame of Indian polity goes into a slugfest extraordinaire with its own image, sparks are bound to fly. The Congress' Bharat Jodo Yatra cavalcade, now in full swing and with gusto, has two distinct, parallel, superimposing agendas. First, to unify a nation that deeply values peace, coexistence and tranquillity and rediscover its ethos overriding sordid tales of chicanery. A firm conviction in political ideology that shuns whataboutery and polarisation and puts the focus on the Congress party and not the Nehru-Gandhi lineage. Second to reinforce Rahul Gandhi's leadership not as a scion of the dynasty but as a dyed-in-the-wool, inveterate politician who can be at the helm of the party, desperately in need of a makeover. And this has less to do with him donning the Congress president's mantle but more with rejuvenating an ailing grassroots cadre base and reinforcing Rahul Gandhi as the only credible, acceptable challenger to the current NDA regime with all its wherewithal.

Also Read | Kerala HC raps Bharat Jodo Yatra organisers for its flex boards, banners along national highways

The BJP, decrying the Congress' long march as a tacit display of gullible photo-ops and good atmospherics, may still be perturbed about its impact on the electorate. Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra is not just a mass unification campaign; it may be an experience at odds with narratives beamed by many primetime channels and their cheerleaders. For many glued to rancorous debates with glib spins on developments, it's an iconoclastic take; they feel Congress' yatra may have touched chords with the masses' natural empathy for amity and pluralism, which is in the national psyche. No wonder party's communications chief Jairam Ramesh has begun the tightrope walk on positioning the Congress party in the opposition camp where regional satraps galore have their own fiefdoms to vouch for. While the unity of a non-NDA umbrella may be paramount to many regional stalwarts, for the Congress, the revival of its moribund organisation is the only roadmap.

Also Read | Cong president not just a post, but a belief system: Rahul Gandhi

True to its chaff, the Congress does not want to be taken for a ride by prospective yet demanding allies, who may chaperone first and then resort to political bullying. This time, unlike in the past two general elections, the party appears determined to shed flab, any predetermined notions of supremacy and perceived baggage of arrogance. Nitish Kumar's exit had pumped adrenalin into a disjointed opposition. Congress' yatra has rightly taken off at the cusp of destiny when the decimated grand old party is in dire need of resuscitation, with a leadership crisis spreading its fangs and prominent desertions being the norm.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s escalating tussle with the BJP in Delhi and Punjab, and Arvind Kejriwal's march is on a different radar and cannot be compared to the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The AAP may be taking a leaf out of the BJP's strategy to counter the NDA's invincibility and present itself as a bugbear to the current regime. The AAP has not harped much on sensitive issues of polarisation and majoritarianism. Instead, to rattle the BJP in key states, the party is sticking to twin pitches of education and healthcare. The Congress party may need to seriously introspect on this aspect as in electoral politics, the winner takes all, shoving ideology to a backseat.

Many political observers were startled, and some within the Congress party appeared astounded when a party veteran like Ghulam Nabi Azad hung his boots. The timing was characteristically astute; the grand old party was, at last, charting out terrain to elect a new president and preparing to capture lost ground in Jammu and Kashmir. When most critics and diehard Congress loyalists pointed to a somnambulating outfit, the party is showing signs of awakening at a pan-India level. Unlike the BJP's Rath Yatra of the 1990s, which catapulted a saffron surge and changed the roadmap of Indian polity for decades, the Congress' bandwagon ensures a political party returning to its grassroots and amplifying its relevance in today's India.

As many commentators have opined, the Congress' topsy turvy electoral fortunes have more to do with wounds that run deeper. Political scientist Zoya Hasan asserts, "Whether secularism can remain India's defining ideology will depend in part on the BJP's future electoral success but, above all, on the strategies the Congress adopts to counter divisive politics engendered by this regime." An aberrational brand of nationalism, which was never the cornerstone of India's freedom movement, seems to have gained traction. The most formidable challenge to the Congress is sustaining the pluralist idea of India it has always espoused and promoted. And this is where like-minded opposition parties can bolster the Congress-led coalition to offer an alternative unifying vision to national politics.

The existential angst of the once-powerful Congress party and its malaise has more to do with the erosion of centrist philosophy. An alternate political narrative where the party shuns soft majoritarianism and revitalises its solidarity with the masses by focusing on issues relevant to public welfare and rebuilding its network at the grassroots. The Congress ship, as recent meltdowns show, is full of proverbial deserters who all want to be the captain and have put the onus of ineptitude on the party's central leadership. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, umpteen spokespersons leaving for good as they feel, all had made the Congress a rudderless ship in shambles.

Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra may be an honest attempt to undo the damage. Even at the cost of past electoral debacles, the party is unlikely to let go of the unwilling Gandhis as its chief patron, whatever the outcome of the presidential election. A functionary from outside the dynasty may not be a cipher but will still need to have the blessings of the family to sail through policies.

The ideological shifts in the last decade echo not merely a political transformation ongoing in India but the ideological consolidation of the right in India, an experience which can only be fought tooth and nail by the grand dame of Indian polity, the Congress. One needs to witness the roleplays on display. There must be an antidote to the societal gobbling of the centrist space on lines of caste and religion and incessant polarisation. Despite all the hoopla by a section of commentators, even a fractured opposition with the Congress at the helm can challenge the NDA threadbare on the road to the 2024 hustings. Multiple aspirants for the coveted top slot, often at loggerheads, can never be a deterrent.

(The writer is a commentator on politics and society.)