Nyay Yatra: False messaging won’t help

Nyay Yatra: False messaging won’t help

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is set to go on another cross-country walkathon, this time under a slightly changed name and style, Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY), from the east of the country to the west. It will start from Manipur on January 14 and end in Mumbai on March 21. The earlier Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY), which concluded in January last year, had attracted national attention and was seen to have been useful to the party in a few state elections that followed. In Karnataka in May 2023 and in Telangana in November-December, the BJY was said to have brought people closer to the Congress in constituencies that it passed through. It did not help in some other states where Rahul Gandhi walked. He is now planning his yatra in a different political environment, after severe losses in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. There are more questions about the party’s strength and its ability to revive its fortunes when a general election is just months away. 

The earlier yatra focused on the need for unity at a time of polarising politics practised by the BJP, but the new yatra is aimed at making a case for “providing economic, social and political justice to people.” During BJY, Congress and Rahul Gandhi denied that the yatra had anything to do with electoral politics and, given the messaging, the claim was believed by many. It gave Rahul Gandhi’s image a makeover, helping him come across as an earnest politician with a moral halo, and even spiritual concerns. Yatras do that to people. It is debatable whether he now retains all that he gained from BJY, but it is true that he is not the Rahul Gandhi he was before the walk. 

The forthcoming yatra cannot be a personal or spiritual journey in the present political context. The issues it seeks to raise are those to be highlighted during the coming election campaign. It starts from Manipur, which has been roiled by violence for over six months. It passes through states that pose a serious political challenge to the Congress. Yet, Rahul Gandhi’s key aide says it is a non-political yatra with no connection to the coming elections. It is an insincere and hypocritical statement and will not help the party. It is not a movement for social justice and upliftment but a political party reaching out to people, seeking to compete with the formidable rival election machinery of the BJP. The Congress leaders’ actions and messaging about the yatra must be tailored to this end and conveyed truthfully and unapologetically. The party cannot compete with ambiguous, even false, messaging and wrong strategies against a party that is clear about its strategies and messaging.