Rahul Gandhi’s Unity March:  Assessment

Asia News Agency

Rahul Gandhi’s Unity March:  Assessment

There is debate whether  the ‘Bharat Jodo’ Yatra, (Unity March)  has thrown up a re-invented Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress,  writes Kalyani Shankar (former Political Editor of the Hindustan Times, Former Washington correspondent of the Hindustan Times) “would like to rebrand Rahul as a young, caring, and ideologically sound leader. True to script, he has shown a different persona…as a kind, warm hearted person.

“For the first time after many years, the grand old party is trying to reach out to people in remote areas and villages.”

 

A more nuanced campaign style

One cannot find fault with Rahul’s efforts, says Shankar. He has demonstrated that he  is physically quite fit. But importantly, “he has changed his campaign style to a nuanced one…..Rahul has demonstrated restraint in personally attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His aggressive attack on Modi in 2019 had not clicked……"

But interestingly, “Rahul talks of love and hatred and how the RSS brand of politics has torn up society with hate.”

 

The impact still unclear

As for the impact of the Unity March on Congress, Shankar writes “the ‘Yatra’s’ response has cheered the cadres and boosted their morale….Rahul’s efforts have temporarily united the factional Congress leaders in different states, including Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, where Congress has a direct fight with BJP…..

“While the Yatra’s success in the south has been good, it is still being determined whether the other regional satraps would join it. Some prominent opposition leaders, particularly in UP, have given a luke-warm response to Rahul’s invitation to join the Yatra. Keeping the 2024 elections and nine Assembly polls this year in mind, Rahul has signaled to the opposition leaders to unite if they want to halt the BJP juggernaut.”

Congress hopes that its three-pronged criticism of the Modi government, the issues of social polarisation, inflation, and unemployment, would capture popular support. While it may not alter the political landscape, Shankar states “it may strengthen the democratic process.

“Though Congress has begun well, it still needs a popular political narrative to lure swing voters, especially the middle classes…..”

Also, “Congress’s new-found agility is yet to translate into electoral success. The results of the nine Assembly elections this year will give us some clues.”

 

Gains for Congress

But, to  political analyst Sheila Bhatt it’s clear that Congress will step in 2023 with high hopes.”

The Unity March,  “is one of the most energetic attempts by Congress to show that it has the capacity for pan-India event management like BJP….

“The old party has also showed that it does have massive resources to mobilise the crowd and conduct its biggest ‘public connect’ exercise, efficiently.

“None can deny that Rahul Gandhi has made a leap forward in the ideology battle but his political judgement remains as weak as it has been.

 

The ideological aspect

Interestingly, Rahul’s ‘yatra’ has kept BJP’s ideology, as Rahul views it, as its sole target. Rahul has been unable to unnerve BJP strategists seriously. That is because Congress won the Himachal Pradesh election without the support of Rahul’s ‘yatra' and BJP’s voters largely seem to have stayed away from him.”

However, according to Bhatt, the BJP “can never be a mute spectator of its arch-rival Congress’ success, even if it’s not a serious political threat.”

 

Has the Unity March lowered communal tempers

At the social level,  Yogendra Yadav (among the founders of Jai Kisan Andolan and Swaraj India) has a hypothesis on whether the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ has  lowered communal tempers. He presents his hypothesis in the wake of conflicting reports from the ground.

A good hypothesis, he says  “must not stop at suggesting a relationship between two variables. It should also give a reason why we expect such a relationship. Here is my take. The Bharat Jodo Yatra seems to have diluted communal bigotry not because it has created an active force to take on communalism. The areas that it has traversed are too small to register a national impact. Even in those areas, the yatra has not yet created a volunteer force that could effectively intervene in any conflict. All we have is the message of the yatra, general and diffused as it is. Even then, the very invocation of ‘jodo' (Unity) serves to recall and reintegrate the message of unity. Rahul Gandhi’s forthright position against the politics of hate, a refreshing change from the equivocation or strategic silence by most mainstream political leaders of the opposition, has suddenly made it acceptable to speak about love….”


All Polity Articles