Will Bharat Jodo Yatra reach Kashmir?

A significant factor at play is linked to the yatra’s final destination, Kashmir, which since 2019, has been without an elected government

The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi began on September 7 and is due to culminate in Srinagar on January 26. Now that it has entered the national capital after an extraordinary 3,500-kilometre journey, just over 500 kilometres remain. Questions can remain about its electoral efficacy, but it has certainly revived the pertinent issues of political morality and constitutional mores. At a time when the nation flounders in divisiveness and cronyism far removed from its foundational values, the moral and ethical issues foregrounded by the yatra are welcome.

The question, however, that this column poses is whether it will be able to reach its final destination. There are valid grounds to ask, particularly as Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya has written a letter to Rahul Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to either follow all Covid protocols during the yatra or suspend it “in the national interest”. There is speculation on what drove the mighty BJP to take note of the yatra led by a figure the national ruling party only loves to mock.

For it is remarkable that before giving an advisory to Bharat to suspend crowding in markets and airports “in the national interest”, the Union health minister saw it fit to give it to the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a mass contact programme of a rival political party. It has been argued that the minister’s advisory stems from competitive politics and unease with the messaging amplified by the journey undertaken rather purposefully by Rahul Gandhi and his fellow travellers.

Read | For BJP, Covid is where Bharat Jodo Yatra is: Rahul Gandhi

It has also been noted that the world over, Covid lockdowns were used to suspend democratic rights. In India, the anti-CAA protests were abruptly called off after the 2020 lockdown began, although the farmers’ stir that began later the same year did not heed demands to shut it down. Some commentators have also argued that the minister’s missive could be designed to create a counter-narrative in case there is a sudden explosion of Covid in India, then it can be blamed on the Congress just as in 2020, the Tablighi Jamaat was held responsible for being a “super spreader”. With much of the broadcast media happy to amplify government and BJP/RSS propaganda, creating irrational narratives divested of real facts is now par for the course in what is defined as a post-truth world.

I believe there is another significant factor at play, and it’s linked to the yatra’s final destination, Kashmir. Since August 5, 2019, when Article 370 giving special status was suspended, and the state of Jammu & Kashmir downgraded to two union territories, it has been without an elected government. There has been a delimitation exercise that critics say is designed to decrease the weightage of Muslim majority Kashmir vis a vis Jammu, which has a mixed population. Besides, parts of the border state include one of the longest-lasting conflict zones in the world. Since 2019, trouble and violence have continued in one of the most militarized places on the globe while much of the once vibrant independent local media has been crushed.

Ideologically, the BJP/RSS always made much of Kashmiri exceptionalism and taking away special constitutional rights was an ideological article of faith with them, realised on August 5, 2019. But Kashmir continues to be one of the great unsolved problems of Modi’s India, where even the fig leaf of democratic rights remains suspended for over three years. There is no clarity on when the promised elections will take place. In the midst of this scenario, imagine Rahul Gandhi leading a walk into the Valley and the media following, inviting even international commentary on the state of affairs in those parts.

The other aspect of marching through Jammu and Kashmir is also the security of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leaders and volunteers accompanying him. It must not be forgotten that the name Bharat Jodo, or unite India, plays differently in a route that has pockets of great alienation from India even as militancy is not over and killings continue. It may also be useful to flashback over 30 years ago, to 1991, when then BJP president Dr Murli Manohar Joshi led a Kanyakumari to Srinagar Yatra, but in a motorcade and not by foot and one of the participants in that endeavour, named Ekta Yatra, was the current prime minister Narendra Modi. Kashmir was in the grip of militancy, and the motorcade was stopped, and Dr Joshi made it to Srinagar’s Lal Chowk in a military aircraft to unfurl the national flag on January 26.

There are also political calculations at play in the remainder of the route of the current yatra. The Congress did have bases in Jammu that were presumed to have been damaged by the exit of veteran and former chief minister of J&K, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who quit the national party and formed his own Democratic Azad Party in 2022. Azad is expected to play a role in whatever politics is revived, with the Centre’s permission, in J&K. But then just last week, barely months into the formation of his new party, he expelled three senior leaders for “anti-party activity”. The leaders were reportedly in conversation with the Congress about a possible homecoming, which means that individuals who had ditched Congress in the mood of despair that Azad stated as the reason for leaving were now rethinking. These are intriguing reports and are currently just straws in the wind.

There are certainly some ifs and buts as to the rest of the journey of the yatra. The best that the Centre can do is be gracious and not bloody-minded and provide security when essential. But since politics often operates in the gutter these days, let’s see what happens as the year ends and the Bharat Jodo yatra resumes after a break in 2023.

(Saba Naqvi is a journalist and author)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.