Farmers walked barefoot on concrete roads, women waited with garlands, bystanders offered water and hundreds joined the designated padayatris as the Bharat Jodo Yatra got off the ground and headed towards Kerala at 7am.
The Yatra attracted spirited response from the people on the first day, encouraging Congress strategists who had faced criticism for relying on what was belittled as a primitive method of political mobilisation.
Congress veterans, party functionaries, MPs and local workers accompanied Rahul Gandhi in the walk, which looked more like a moving carnival than an arduous struggle.
While the morning session — when there is no mobilisation by the party — saw around 2,000 people walking the 13-km stretch, over 25,000 joined the second leg of the Yatra between 3.30pm and 6.30pm.
In between, the Yatris took rest at the 101-year-old SMSM Higher Secondary School in Suchindram where Rahul met three delegations — of women activists, Dalit groups and environment activists.
When Mahatma Gandhi stayed at this school in 1937, he had signed the register both in English and Tamil, showing his sensitivity towards cultural pluralism.
The initial concerns of a rigorous journey seemed to have evaporated amid the sea of people. The young Kanhaiya Kumar, one of the 118 designated Yatris, told The Telegraph: “Being among the people ensures the rush of adrenaline in genuine politicians. Political programmes are usually staged. This walk generates natural interactions; people can come and talk to the leaders freely. None of us has any worry about the hardship on the way.”
Kanhaiya added that while politicians should always be among the people, the extraordinary situation when the normal avenues of conversation are blocked necessitated this direct connect with the masses.
Kanhaiya said: “When the media won’t show the Opposition voices, when Parliament doesn’t debate relevant issues, when institutions are crippled, when the principle of accountability is abandoned, the party that led the freedom struggle cannot remain a mute spectator.”
Insisting that Indians are secular in nature but projects to communalise and divide are continuously executed by the RSS-BJP, Kanhaiya said: “This Yatra will reinforce the belief that the idea of India cannot be crushed, that the constitutional values alone can be the governing principle.”
Asked what if the Congress fails to win in 2024 despite the Yatra, Kanhaiya said: “Continue to be among the people. If the divisive forces continue to harm the country after 2029, do another yatra.”
After the completion of the second leg, the Yatra halted for the night at Nagercoil where around 60 containers mounted on trucks were parked.
While Rahul and some senior leaders like Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh stayed in the containers on Wednesday night too, the Yatris will sleep in these cramped spaces from Thursday night. While some containers have two beds, others have four.
The containers have been supplied by a company from Mumbai. For night halt and arranging food for over 200 people, the party had to scout for a two-acre space at 150 places on the way, which was the most difficult aspect of planning the tour.
Campuses of schools and colleges came to their rescue as finding such a big open space for the night halt was difficult. The state units of the Congress have been tasked with providing food to the participants.
Life is going to be tough as the day starts quite early with breakfast being served at 5.30am sharp.
The Yatra will enter Kerala on September 10 night and take a break on October 2, when it is scheduled to be in Karnataka, to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. On October 5 also, the Yatra will not move as the Yatris have been allowed to take part in Dussehra festivities in Mysore.
