Bharat Jodo: Chasing the yatra magic

Political yatras are not an end in themselves. Rahul Gandhi will need a clear purpose if his yatra is to be judged successful

The “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, being conducted by Rahul Gandhi, is now in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, and — after a Dussehra stop in the city of Mysuru — is due to resume its journey north through the state on Thursday. It is then scheduled to cross over into the state of Andhra Pradesh in about 10 days. The yatra has already been on for almost a month, and has produced numerous social media-ready photographs, including one of Mr Gandhi addressing a crowd of supporters in pouring rain. While the reception so far has clearly been positive and even enthusiastic in some parts of Kerala, the fact is that in both Kerala and Karnataka the Congress party has a presence and is a real political player. Soon, however, the yatra will start moving through areas where the party has disappeared as a coherent entity. It is not easy to predict what sort of reception it will receive there.

Either way, those who believe the yatra will achieve some success in coming days should ask themselves: What is its purpose and endpoint? Will any political gains made by it be sustainable? Independent India’s political history is filled with yatras of one sort or another. Some have been remarkably successful even when they were incomplete: Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yatra being a case in point. Mr Advani may have been arrested in Bihar, but that only raised his stature and that of the Bharatiya Janata Party. More importantly, the party became clearly associated with the Ayodhya “movement” because the rath yatra had a clear endpoint in mind: The building of a temple at Ayodhya. That ensured permanently higher visibility for the party and for Mr Advani. On the other hand, Chandra Shekhar’s padyatra in 1983 did raise his profile — but only temporarily. Chandra Shekhar had one stroke of momentous bad luck — he reached the terminus of his yatra, Rajghat in New Delhi, on June 25, 1983, just as Kapil Dev’s India side was in the process of winning the World Cup. But that would have been easily surmountable had there been built into Chandra Shekhar’s padyatra some direct object that would have ensured it a lasting legacy.

In the end, few yatras have had as immediate or as long-lasting an effect as the one all of them are consciously or unconsciously trying to emulate: N T Rama Rao’s nine-month odyssey across undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1982, which ended only when Assembly elections were called early. The Congress lost the state for the first time since its creation. More than that, NTR’s yatra successfully created such a strong sub-regional identity that the Congress’ campaign could be successfully rendered alien and ineffectual simply because it was run by northerners like Narayan Dutt Tiwari and Arun Nehru. NTR’s straightforward message of Andhra pride, his willingness to stay in the field till elections were called, and the lack of pomp that meant he would address even a couple of dozen voters in every village with no preparation, all played their part. Mr Gandhi will need as simple and direct a message if his yatra is to be judged successful.