Prof Ram Puniyani
AS assembly elections in Maharashtra are progressing; the mindset of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was expressed clearly by the state’s deputy chief minister, previous chief minister and a top party leader Devendra Fadnavis. In an interview with Times of India, and during several election speeches, he blamed the downward performance of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year on the Bharat Jodo Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
According to Fadnavis, the BJP failed to counter the narrative set by the yatra. This led to the decline of the BJP seats from 23 in 2019 to only nine in 2024. In this context, he approached various organisations affiliated with the RSS to set the counter-narrative. He also revealed an open secret that when in trouble he consults his parent organisation, the RSS, to brighten the BJP’s electoral prospects.
The first Rahul march, called ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, started on September 7, 2022, from the south in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. This was concluded in January 2023 in the north in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. It covered 4,080 kms criss-crossing a dozen states. The second march, called Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, travelled from east to west. This started on January 14 from Thoubal in Manipur, which covered 6,713 kms through 15 states before culminating in Mumbai on March 16.
As per Fadnavis, now Rahul Gandhi is surrounded by Urban Naxals and Ultra-Left elements and he is less of a Congressman and more of an ultra-left ideologue! Right-wing Hindu nationalists, true to their guru MS Golwalkar’s formulation (Bunch of Thoughts: Page 133) consider Muslims, Christians, and Communists as internal threats to the Hindu Nation. Fadnavis and his ilk will label anything against the agenda of Hindu Rashtra (Nation) as either pampering Muslims or Christians or Urban Naxals or Ultra-Left today. Urban Naxal word has been coined for all human rights activists; Ultra-Left is for mostly those working for the rights of all deprived sections of society.
Why was Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY) conceived and taken out? Clearly the then 8-9 years old Modi government’s rule had stifled the voices being raised for protection of values inherent in the Indian Constitution. It was the culmination of the social discomfort due to government policies which were being directed against the citizenship rights of Muslims, against the worsening plight of average people. It was conceived to unite India along the lines of what Mahatma Gandhi did while leading the anti-colonial movement.
What was the agenda of the BJY? As clear from the title; it aimed to instill a sense of oneness amongst Indians, irrespective of their caste, colour, religion and gender. It was airing the demands for most disadvantaged sections of social groups’ rights through various slogans, including the one demanding caste census. The response to this yatra was magical; making people from most strata of life join it or see its spectacle from the sidelines. They perceived that long years of divisive politics and implementation of policies which favoured the affluent were harming the unity of the country and the plight of average people. They perceived that this event would restore the situation in a better direction.
This yatra stood in stark contrast to the yatra taken out by Fadnavis’ guru, Lal Krishna Advani. That yatra (Advani’s) was on the emotive issue, around a make-believe notion of the Hindu temple having been destroyed centuries ago by a Muslim king. Advani’s yatra saw the bloodshed all the way on its route. And later when Babri Masjid’s demolition took place much more violence was witnessed and hate against Muslims got further entrenched in society. That yatra, which Fadnavis welcomed with glee, led to the upswing and strength of the communal party.
The BJY was a total contrast. There was no emotive issue. It kept the Indian Constitution at the centre and united the Indians on their identity of Indians. Fadanvis is more concerned about the red cover of the book (Constitution), because the contents of this book don’t matter to him. And he also forgot that this red-cover edition of the Constitution was presented by Supreme Leader Narendra Modi to Ram Nath Kovind.
There was an apprehension during BJY whether the visible support for the yatra will change the electoral equations. While not fully but in part, the yatra has dented the then-prevailing electoral dominance of communal parties. To its great credit, the statement BJY impacted the Maharashtra election coming from the horse’s mouth (Fadnavis) is the big validation of its impact on electoral politics.
Till now the dominant discourse was that of the prevalent Hindu right-wing nationalism. That has been partly combated by this BJY, while more needs to be done. Challenging the divisive communal discourse, which has been leading to hate, fear and ghettoisation of minorities is partly challenged but a lot more needs to be done in this direction. What Mahatma had begun in a very powerful way was to give the message of unity of people cutting across religions. That’s what BJY tried and has to take it further.
Another important fallout of the yatra was laying the foundations of social platforms like Bharat Jodo Abhiyan and Eddulu Karnataka. These have the potential to boost the values of the Indian Constitution. These groups working for the ‘rights’ of diverse deprived and ‘less equal’ sections of society have been coming together as collectives where they can assist each other in preserving the values of the Indian Constitution. These groups are diverse, dedicated and firm on equal rights for all. The concept of rights for all is very troublesome for the right-wingers. In their agenda between ‘rights and duties’ there is a neat division. For them the affluent have all the rights and the deprived have all the duties.
This is akin to the feudal kingdom systems where kings, landlords, and priests were endowed with all the rights and the lower sections, including women, had all the duties. So was the distribution of wealth.
Thanks to Fadnavis we now know clearly that BJP suffered a setback due to BJA. Thanks to Fadnavis we know more clearly the deeper relations between RSS, its progeny (which are not in electoral politics) and the BJP which is their front on the electoral chess board. It was known but coming from the BJP leader himself, there should be no doubt about it now!
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Ram Puniyani is an eminent author, activist and former professor at IIT Mumbai. The views expressed here are personal and Clarion India does not necessarily share or subscribe to them.
