Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the Bharat Jodo Yatra had achieved significant success in establishing that there was an alternative vision and way of governance to the RSS-BJP’s violent, hate-filled model in which one religion and one culture dominated others.
Addressing a news conference in Jaipur on the occasion of the Yatra completing 100 days, Rahul said he had discovered that the hate agenda had been thrust on a society that craved peace and harmony. “I too thought, ‘What has happened to our country?’ But walking among millions of people and talking to them convinced me that people are affectionate towards each other and want to live in peace and harmony. Hate is being spread artificially from the top, but intrinsically India believes in peaceful coexistence,” he said.
Asked why he was wandering on the roads if he had no electoral objectives, Rahul said: “I am wandering on the streets because we want to wipe out the fear and the hate troubling the people.” He added: “It has become fashionable to presume that Indians are hateful. What I have seen through my 2,800km walk is that people are against divisive politics, (they are) worried about economic inequality and injustice. I am surprised they tolerate it quietly. They have big hearts. But the Bharat Jodo Yatra has successfully sent out a message that this country cannot be run like that.”
Rahul went on: “The RSSBJP have a vision, they want the country to take a particular path. It’s a violent, hatefilled path. It’s a path designed to create two Indias: five-sixten billionaires who have everything and the other India in poverty and desperation.
“They want one religion, one culture, one language to dominate. Our vision is that there should be a conversation, an understanding of each other; you don’t have to be nasty and cruel. You have to reach out, to embrace others. Many people come to me with whom I disagree. But the Bharat Jodo Yatra wants to show there is space for disagreement.”
Rahul said there was no dearth of people who supported the Congress.
“It’s an ideological battle. Don’t underestimate the Congress party. There has been a systematic defamation campaign against myself, for sure, and the Congress party. The media participated in it,” he said.
“The idea that the Congress party is withering away, ineffective, is preached by the BJP, and you (the media) have played a part in it. A lot of people have this fantasy about the Congress dying, that it is finished. But that is not true, not going to be true. Mark my words — the BJP is going to be taken down by the Congress.
Rahul listed several reasons why the BJP kept winning elections, such as the use of enormous money, the misuse of institutions, and ideological clarity.
“One of the reasons why the BJP wins elections is they are very clear about who they are. They are hateful, they divide India. I don’t agree with them (on these counts). But they have complete clarity,” he said.
“It is easy for them to have clarity. Do you hate so and so? OK, that’s who you are. For us, it is much more complicated. The day the Congress understands in depth who it is and what it stands for, it will win every election it faces.”
Rahul’s emphasis is clearly on ideological clarity, which the Bharat Jodo Yatra has brought into focus. The main slogan, “Nafrat chhodo, Bharat jodo (Shun hate, united India)”, leaves no room for doubt that the Congress isn’t ready to barter constitutionalism and secularism for majoritarian dominance.
