Bharat Jodo or Kashmir Todo Yatra or Quit Congress Roko Yatra
Er. P L Khushu
Rahul Gandhi the Raj Kumar of the congress party is on a new mission mystically called as " Bharat -Jodo what is there for ‘Bharat’ which needs to be ‘Jodo’ in other words to be connected. A hypocritical proposition without any dimension yes, the dimension can be to send the Raj Kumar on a political excursion, by the congress party so that he knows India fully, before he dreams to become the prime minister of India, a dream of an orthodox slumber suspecting further erosion of the congress party, as most of its stalwarts have already deserted this age old national party, this T Shirt Yatra may be an attempt to stop the quit congress" movement which is rusting the basic roots of this grand old political party of India. Congress is reduced now to a party of just a few persons who are mostly unknown to the masses of India except the mother, son and sister trio this Yatra is at its last leg, when presently it is moving on the roads and streets of Jammu and Kashmir Rahul Gandhi has done more harm to his congress party, than adding credence to this political party, when he admired his welcome in Jammu and Kashmir at the hands of the political leaders of national conference and pdp and the like, who are the sympathizers of the separatists movements in Kashmir, as also the sympathizers of Pakistan in Kashmir and have never allowed peace to prevail in Jammu and Kashmir for their vote bank politics. They have always been talking about going for talks with Pakistan over Kashmir.
Unfortunately under compulsions of the situation for reciprocating the ill willed sympathies of these political leaders, he had to speak almost their language about the Kashmir, which is a direct attempt of Kashmir Todo". By him through this so called" yatra" or excursion.
Birds of the same feather flock together, is what Rahul Gandhi is conveying through this self-styled T-shirt voyage through the orchids of India. India the "bharat '' is fully consolidated and united with the angelic leadership of Prime Minister Modi. All those, amongst religion and region, for their vote bank poli- tics are the attendees and voyagers in this so called Gandhi Yatra. Self-seekers and self-employed political leaders of the day compare this excursion voyage with the similar synonymous Yatra of the great son of the soil the Mahatma Gandhi of the pre-independence times of India. It is a big sin to do so. The great mahatma was a selfless leader of the masses of India, who had attained bigger heights in his political voyage to get India liberated from the clutches of the British. His spiritual attainments as a leader of the Indian masses had risen to very big heights, when he would mostly move naked, having abandoned all the passion of materialistic pursuits and interests of life. What a contrast and diffusion? Rahul Gandhi has launched the 3,500 Kilometres nationwide so called bharat Jodo Yatra, from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. Rahul Gandhi’s advisors seem to have convinced him that a much Publicized nationwide foot march, Padayatra, is the best way to elevate him and his march to the same level as while comparing the " Dandi-march' with this' Yatra'. A wishful day dreaming by the sycophants around Rahul Gandhi and his coterie of sycophants. Such propositions by the kitchen cabinet of Gandhi’s is almost like performing the last rites of the congress party, which is its own architect of its present doom. Congress has almost shrunk. A symbolic Yatra across the contours of India should have been led by some other matured congress leader, other than Rahul Gandhi, from the residual lot of the congressmen who are still clinched to this dynasty dominated political party of India. Rahul Gandhi is ridiculing his political ridicule to the mock and the jocular clapping of the Indians across the country. God save the king, the king is dead; a famous proverb fits in here.
What has this so-called "T-shirt" enamored Yatra achieved so far? Its drumbeaters are punching their breasts with the hoax slogans of removing hate from the country. Hate against whom. It is their own hate against their own selves. The often-repeated slogan
'Congress - mukat- Bharat, since 2014, by the majority of Indians, when congress lost its elections and the government badly, is probably now coming as a truth and not a fallacy it was looking like a joke at that point of time, when one could hardly visualise that the condition of the congress party will be so much implacable that it can hardly find a full- fledged congress president, which they have found now, within their own inner coterie and yes-men. Unfortunate for the nation about such a party, which is as old as the independence movement of India and supposed to deliver better, as a prudent and reliable opposition party, both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, democracy and its intrinsic values demand that for a better governance, by a ruling party particularly with a sizeable majority, that there should be a healthy and a meaningful opposition party to serve as a watchdog for the ruling party, in its disposition of various policies and programs for the welfare of the people of the country. But unfortunate- ly it is squarely missing because of the dis- sent, chaos, fusion and confusion in the congress party, which was supposed to be a leading opposition party. The high command of congress during the Nehru era used to be an elite conglomeration of prized politicians of high- est political and democratic wisdom. It was carried forward for a major time by Indira Gandhi as well, to a larger extent till she succumbed to the lure and lust of adhering to political power through the arm of dynastic web, when she imposed emergency in the country for remaining in power perpetually. After her election was declared null and void by the high court. In this process of trying to stick to the political power perpetually, she throttled and choked the voice of media, along with circumventing the constitution to her taste of retaining the power and got almost each and every political entity and member of the opposition parties tied to jails for longer durations beyond imagination. It was a havoc unleashed across the country during that period of the imposition of emergency across the country. Nevertheless, it did not last long. She lost the reins of power miserably when the elections were held subsequently, reducing the congress party to a big minority. In fact, the die was first cast during that period only which saw congress mostly declining from time to time, when it has now been routed from its base in this country. The present.
Congress high command is reduced to just three creatures of mother and her two progenies, viz the queen, the Raj Kumar and A Raj Kumari once the Raj Kumar was tried by his fosters to lead the congress party, it ended in a fiasco. He dwelled on abusing Modi with untruths and dismal utterances not befitting a person who had a chance through proxy to lead a national political party of great name and fame. Nevertheless, he lost the bus due to his own incompetence and immaturity to handle such a post. In fact he got defamed and disrepute to the party which the party is still not able to come out of. He was even pulled up by the highest judiciary of this country too and advised to behave.
Congress is facing a countrywide identity crisis with the party not having come up with enough numbers to even qualify as an opposition party in the polls. They are reduced to just almost fifties in the parliament. Six years after the party's electoral rout pushed it into a continuing downward spiral, 23 senior leaders of the congress, including five former chief ministers, many congress working.
Committee members, sitting mps, and several former union ministers, have, in an unprecedented pushback, sent a letter to party chief calling for sweeping changes, from top to bot- tom the letter, learnt to have been sent some time back, details a reforms agenda that is, in effect, a stinging indictment of the current leadership. This letter of dissent mentions that the revival of the congress is "a national imperative" fundamental to the health of democracy. It is now a situation of leadership crisis in the congress, which is now manifesting in a farcical battle of the generations. The fact, India’s grand old party seems unable to look beyond "the family". The cognizant group of 23 senior congress leaders, including former chief ministers, union ministers and party general secretaries, are calling for ideological clarity, an overhaul of the party's organization and addressing the leadership vacuum. The winner takes it all. So is the case with the, 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections when Narendra Modi tsunami dismantled the entire opposition barring a couple of states where regional satraps still rule the roost. The mandate was not only for the prime minister but also a referendum on Rahul Gandhi's leadership and acceptance as a leader who cannot replace Modi. The man- date shows that people not only rejected Rahul Gandhi but also the top brass of the congress. Has the Raj Kumar of congress party, Rahul Gandhi become a liability for this grand old party? With this degree of performance can Rahul Gandhi continue to successfully function and lead the party as also daydream for becoming the prime ministerial candidate of congress party for the coming national elections of 2024 should he quit and make way for some other deserving candidate? Will the mother son and the daughter trio allow it to happen? It is question bigger than its size. Will this "Yatra" help him? Distinctly not.
Veterans in the party having been sidelined are on the fence watching the doom of their party due to dynastic holds of this party. 35% MPS, MLA'S who switched parties between 2014-2022 joined bjp when the prominent defectors were from congress party Kapil Sibal a vocal and a prominent member of g- 23 said that he wants a sab ki congress' and expressed that the 'Gandhis' should step aside "leadership is in cuckoo land I want a sab ki congress some want a 'Ghar Ki congress Sibal told the media, adding that the Gandhi’s should step aside and give some other leader a chance to lead the party Gulam Nabi Azad a veteran congress leader and giant muslim face of congress party has been shown the door with humiliations.
The congress party is its own biggest enemy, bogged down by dynastic ruler ship with an organizational dysfunction, a pathological aversion to change, for reasons to retain power on dynastic legacy, apart from a culture of sycophancy with much of its traditional support base heavily eroded and nobody new coming on board, congress is playing to an empty house. The truth is that the party is absurdly out of touch with the new political landscape and it is not even try- ing to get its head around it seriously, hoping that the electorate believing in congress are still the same ignorant lot who will get them back in their laps. It has not worked so far. And it is not likely to work in the future. The flora of a garden get its shine of worth and a smell of ecstatic aroma with the seedlings it is planted with once such seedlings are mutilated and out of functional base, such a gar- den is thus going to prove as a liability for its worth, as it has no charm of attracting others. That is the case with the present congress, when the seedlings which are adorning it are either foreign to it or are of weak genetic formation to grow to a full size to magnify the glory of this garden, to its original grace how will any nationwide "Yatra" help it, when the masses are disgruntled.
By the second decade of the 21st century, the resurgent BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and then with the people amelioration akin policies of Narendra Damodardas Modi, has altered India’s political landscape. They dismissed the English-speaking lot as Macaulay’s children and replaced the external. View of country for adhesive growth, with an internal gaze founded on "sab-ka-sath", sab- ka-vikas', sab-ka-vishwas' and now "sab- ka-priyas". It has been done on the ground, for the people of India, when it is visible today by its acceptance by the people though the force of ballot BJP won in Rae Bareli and Amethi too, a one time strong congress hold zones. This is where the cast and region supported politics has seen its burial. These bright and sound election results in favor of bjp, particularly with its repeat shows the popularity of bjp under the leadership of prime minister Modi, which shows a bright future and a perspective for the general elections of the country which are to come in the year 2024. These results are a signal towards the fact that people of India want BJP rule under Modi for this country, which has performed a herculean task for the nation to put it on a development path in all respects with- out any caste or colour based considerations.
This "t-shirt" so called bharat Jodo Yatra is now in Jammu and Kashmir. First and foremost thing to do in this regard for the congress is to set its house in order in Jammu and Kashmir, as it is still smarting under the deadly blow delivered to it by Mr. Azad. As already mentioned above the "birds of the same feather flock together", national conference patriarch Farooq Abdullah and some others from the fallen lot, have received this Yatra at its entry point in j & k. This is the compulsion of time. They have no other choice. They will repeat that this "Yatra" will remove hate in this country, referring it to the present bjp rule. Should they shed some crocodile tears for the dis- placed Kashmiri Pandits too who are suffer- ing due to their hate and regression for them? Let them feel shy, before they walk with the " t-shirt bharat Jodo Yatra, to further break Jammu And Kashmir, which will in that case be a "Kashmir-Todo Yatra. In Uttar Pradesh, none of the key opposition parties have attended it, though the congress had extended invitation to the Samajwadi Party, Jayant Chaudhary's Rashtriya Lok Dal and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.
Why should Rahul Gandhi shy away from unfurling the national flag from the historic Lal-Chowk of Srinagar, when great leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Sheikh Abdullah, G M Sadiq, Indira Gandhi, have done so to show that Kashmir is an integral part of India? To the entire dismay of his T shirt Yatra, he is hoisting the Indian flag at the congress office in Srinagar and that too not on 26 January but some other date of his expected arrival in Kashmir. Is he doing so to follow the separatist's ideology and the movement of the dynastic political leaders of Kashmir who are more inclined to these separatists' leaders rather than to the ideology of ‘Bharat' in Kashmir? So this so-called T shirt " Yatra" by Rahul Gandhi is "Kashmir-Todo" Yatra for him and his political party.
The 1991 Ekta Yatra was led by BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi and was intended to signal that bjp supported national unity and opposed separatist movements in Kashmir. It commenced on 11 December 1991 in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Subramanian Bharati and the 'Balidan Diwas' of Guru Tegh Bahadur. The Yatra visited 14 states. Other notable participants included Narendra Modi, the present prime minister of India, who helped organize the rally, and Anandiben Patel. The motorcade of hundreds of vehicles was stopped at Patnitop beyond Jammu on 25 January 1992. But Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi made it to hoist the Indian flag at Srinagar's Lal Chowk in a military aircraft to unfurl the national flag on January 26. This is national- ism and a national priority.
(The author is a chartered consultant civil engineer, passionately attached and devoted to his Mother Land-Jammu & Kashmir)
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in the article above are Er. P L Khushu’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright disclaimer under section 107 of the copyright act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy:- Er. P L Khushu and 2023 February Spade A Spade