Distantly Close | The long and short of the yatras by Rahul and Kejriwal
In motion — with the contrasting tones of Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo and Arvind Kejriwal's ‘Make India No.1’ — is a political churn. But is the former's narrative too weak? And is the latter punching above his weight? Only time will tell.
In this season of political journeys, the longest is led by Rahul Gandhi and the loudest by Arvind Kejriwal. On the day the Congress leader set out on his 3,570-km “Bharat Jodo (Unite India)” trek from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener kick-started in Haryana a staggered, country-wide tour to propagate his “Make-India-Number-One” plank.
If an Opposition front is indeed “conceived” for being given shape and “delivered” after the 2024 polls, the BJP will only have itself to blame. (Sanjeev Verma/AAP Media)
Another wayfarer making waves, albeit without much notice by the national media, is political strategist Prashant Kishor. His search for a new political order, christened “Jan Suraaj,” is focused on Bihar, historically the country’s cradle of democracy from where, in modern times, Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) fought and ended Indira Gandhi’s “misrule” in the turbulent seventies. By most accounts, Kishor’s mission is to recruit cadres for a new-look party.
Contrasting tones of Rahul and Kejriwal
By the tone of it, Gandhi’s yatra is understatedly ambitious, mixing altruism with realism, when compared to Kejriwal’s pragmatic pitch. They both attack Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s “plutocratic” policies, except that the Delhi chief minister (CM) does it, so to speak, in the manner of the lead protagonist of that Bollywood blockbuster, Zanjeer, while Rahul’s portrayal is of a smouldering, woefully wronged, character out of Govind Nihalani’s parallel cinema. The former version has a wider appeal; the latter’s a powerful influence on a niche audience that’s growing. Maybe the two would be better off as hybrids of one another.
Having started his yatra after an hour-long meeting with a freshly-minted ally, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who has assumed the role of a sheet anchor for Opposition unity, Rahul seems willing to co-opt or be co-opted in a non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) framework. But Kejriwal’s fighting on two fronts: Modi and the Congress. He’s understood to have told Kumar that the Congress lacked the pluck to smother the BJP offensive sub-served by State institutions on which it has a captive hold.
In fact, what took the Delhi CM to the neighbouring state was a by-election for Haryana’s Adampur assembly seat vacated by Congress renegade Kuldeep Bishnoi who recently joined the BJP. As the leader of a party that wrested Delhi and more recently, Punjab, from the Congress, Kejriwal’s was an overtly electoral mission. He’s seeking to occupy the space ceded by a “dissipating” Congress.
Congress needs a stronger in-the-face narrative
Rahul’s emotive telling of his journey is about safeguarding the country from the baser human instincts of hate and violence that took his father Rajiv Gandhi’s life. The plot might fetch him an Oscar. Winning elections needs a stronger, in-the-face script. One says that without meaning to mock.
While Kejriwal plays to the gallery, making a big deal of the Adampur election, describing it as his gateway to the politically bipolar Haryana, Gandhi, in the mode of a method-actor, won’t even touch poll-bound Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in the course of his 150-day journey traversing a dozen states. If it progresses without hiccups, the Bharat Jodo walk will conclude in January next year. By then, the Congress would’ve elected its new president and Himachal and Gujarat — which figure prominently on the AAP’s poll path — their new governments.
In real politic, Alexander is the one who wins: Jo Jitaa wahi sikandar! Having fetched freedom for the country, Mahatma Gandhi and a few more, like JP, who shunned power politics, could afford not to win elections. Even Pandit Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, and Indira Gandhi sought mandates to stay relevant. The choice before Rahul, therefore, is limited. Not just curious crowds, he has to draw voters to help the party and himself be billed a strong leader.
Is AAP punching above its weight?
Kejriwal, for his part, cannot be a perennial loudhailer. He undoubtedly has proved his brand of developmental politics by retaining Delhi and extending his political territory to Punjab. The inescapable question is whether early victories have turned the AAP leadership delusional. Those given to punching above their weight run the risk of exposing their chins. In the short run, the neophyte party cannot win Himachal and Gujarat; it can only help the BJP defeat the Congress by setting up triangular contests.
The upbeat, almost hyperbolic nature of Kejriwal’s thrust has its genesis in the well-placed belief that for now, he has everything to gain and nothing to lose. The exact opposite of it is true of Rahul. His party cannot afford to lose — as it's left with little to lose.
On the positive side, the Bharat Jodo yatra has infused a semblance of life to the Congress rendered comatose by humiliating defeats in two successive general elections. After a long gap, the party’s acting and its adversaries reacting, as evidenced by the BJP’s over-the-top sallies and the AAP’s parallel yatra.
The overall impact of the marathon walk can only be judged on its conclusion; the narrative it builds between the launch and the touchdown. Much will happen over the remaining phases of the 150- day hike through 12 states including those ruled by the BJP, notably Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana. As is their wont, the saffron cohorts will leave no stone unturned to make that part of the march controversial to suit their narrative.
BJP has itself to blame for the Opposition reading an identical script
Do the Congress managers have it in them to overcome the mighty Right-wing challenges to revive the party or showcase Gandhi as one willing to lead from the front, with or without a party office? There’s also that troubling imponderable about the yatra’s fate in the event of the Congress facing rejection in states scheduled for elections.
There cannot be two views about Rahul requiring an image makeover to come across as a willing politician from being a reluctant, inaccessible leader. For that to be, a lot will depend on how well he connects with the people to convey the import of his public outreach on issues such as price rise, unemployment, and societal divide.
The yatra, he says, was necessitated by the “denial” of democratic platforms to the BJP’s opponents to prevent their voices from reaching the citizens. The scenario the non-BJP parties jointly paint is of the fast-blurring line between the government and the institutions of the State.
In that context, if an Opposition front is indeed “conceived” for being given shape and “delivered” after the 2024 polls, the BJP will only have itself to blame. For a party that once took pride in its prowess in running coalitions, the distrust it now evokes from regional outfits is unimaginable.
With over half-a-dozen CMs lending voices to the chorus for change, very much in motion is a political churn. Time alone can tell whether it’ll rustle up change or status quo!
HT’s veteran political editor, Vinod Sharma, brings together his four-decade-long experience of closely tracking Indian politics, his intimate knowledge of the actors who dominate the political theatre, and his keen eye which can juxtapose the past and the present in his weekly column, Distantly Close
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_1662970641227.jpg "If an Opposition front is indeed “conceived” for being given shape and “delivered” after the 2024 polls, the BJP will only have itself to blame. (Sanjeev Verma/AAP Media)")
