‘Ek Tera Kadam, Ek Mera Kadam’: A complete guide to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra

Congress member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi launched the party’s ‘ Bharat Jodo Yatra' today from Kanyakumari in the south to Kashmir in the north.

Gandhi visited his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s memorial in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur this morning. He then travelled to Kanyakumari to attend an event at the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam where Chief Minister MK Stalin handed over a Khadi national flag to him for the yatra, according to a report on NDTV.

LIVE: Shri @RahulGandhi at prayer gathering in memory of Former Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbudur. https://t.co/58rh9b5RvA

— Congress (@INCIndia) September 7, 2022

The 3,500-kilometre foot march will cover 12 states and two Union Territories over a five-month period. Congress has called it the “longest political march” organised in the country in the last century. The yatra was launched with a rally at 5 pm and the foot march will begin on Thursday.

Also read: Kanhaiya Kumar, Pawan Khera: Look who’s joining Rahul Gandhi for Congress’ Bharat Jodo yatra

The party has billed the yatra as an unprecedented mass contact programme ever undertaken in Independent India, claiming its objective is to ensure that the concerns and demands of the people reach Delhi.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said the Yatra is a “transformational moment for Indian politics and it is a decisive moment for the rejuvenation of the Congress party”.

The party handle tweeted:

कदम से कदम मिलाएंगे
अपनों के पास जाएंगे
जनता के लिए आवाज उठाएंगे
देश को बिखरने से बचाएंगे#BharatJodoYatra pic.twitter.com/unH0Da0RAJ

— Congress (@INCIndia) September 6, 2022

A final check on the preparations at the venue near the Mahatma Gandhi Mandapam was done by general secretaries K C Venugopal and Ramesh along with senior leader and Yatra organisation panel in-charge Digvijaya Singh.

“There is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement among the Congress workers across India,” Ramesh told PTI. “Even in states where the yatra is not passing through, people are excited. In each state the Congress will organise similar yatras on a smaller scale, maybe of 50 km or 100 km on the main theme of uniting India, an India being torn apart by economic inequalities, social polarisation and over-centralisation,” he said.

Let’s take a closer look at the details of the yatra:

How will Congress go about the yatra?

After paying homage at the Sriperumbudur memorial near Chennai, the site where Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991, and participating in a prayer meet, Rahul flagged off the Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari.

Tamil Nadu | Congress MP Rahul Gandhi pays floral tribute at Rajiv Gandhi memorial in Sriperumbudur ahead of Bharat Jodo Yatra pic.twitter.com/aV2FAORZgF

— ANI (@ANI) September 7, 2022

Along with Stalin, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel were also present.

Before the launch of the yatra, Rahul also visited Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Thiruvalluvar Statue and Kamaraj Memorial in Kanyakumari.

The 3,570-kilometre walkathon will begin at 7 am on 8 September when Rahul and several other Congress leaders will embark on the journey.

From Kanyakumari, the padyatris will pass through Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Nilambur, Mysuru, Bellary, Raichur, Vikarabad, Nanded, Jalgaon, Indore, Kota, Dausa, Alwar, Bulandshaher, Delhi, Ambala, Jammu and finally culminate in Kashmir’s capital Srinagar.

There will also be separate small Bharat Jodo Yatras’ in Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Sikkim, West Bengal and Nagaland.

The ‘padayatra’ will reach Kerala on 11 September and will traverse through the state for the next 18 days, reaching Karnataka on 30 September. It will remain in Karnataka for 21 days before moving to other states northwards.

According to a News18 report, the Congress has largely played it safe with the yatra and perhaps missed an opportunity to make a statement.

“It focuses on states like Rajasthan where it will go through three places in which the Congress is in power. In Punjab and Haryana, it’s only Ambala that is being touched despite the fact that Haryana is up for grabs for the Congress. The yatra in its first leg skips Odisha and the Northeast and gives the feeling of being a safe one. If one goes through history, yatras of leaders have emboldened the party when they go through tough or challenging areas,” the report says.

Living on the road

The ‘padayatra’ will move in two batches, one from 7 am to 10:30 am and the other from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm.

While the morning session will include fewer participants, the evening session will witness mass mobilisation.

On average, the padyatris will walk around 22 to 23 km daily.

According to The Hindu, the Bharat Yatris will be staying on the road and cooking food at the campsites. They will have access to laundry once in three days for the next 150 days.

The travellers will be sleeping in 59 containers mounted on trucks, the report says.

Rahul, due to his security detail, will have a container to himself, while the other yatris have to bunk together.

A majority of these containers will hold 12 persons, as per the report. The average age of the participants is 38.

The oldest participant is 58-year-old Vijendra Singh Mahlawat of Rajasthan and the youngest is a 25-year-old duo Ajam Jombla and Bem Bai from Arunachal Pradesh. Only 28 participants are women, as per the report.

“Age is not really a factor. I would have joined this mission that our leader Rahul Gandhi is leading, even if I was 98. And anyway, I have already cautioned my fellow travellers who are much younger to me that I am going to outstrip them,” Mahlawat told the newspaper.

“My biggest motivation to join the yatra is to highlight the plight of many young people like myself who are struggling to find employment. This is a serious problem eating into our prime years,” Bai chimed in.

Around 50,000 non-party citizens have also registered to participate in the yatra.

To coincide with the launch of the yatra on Wednesday, ‘Prarthana Sabhas’ will be held by all state units of the Congress at 5 pm, a senior leader said. At 7 am on Thursday, 10-km foot marches will be held at the block level to mark the start of the main Yatra.

Congress leader Digvijay Singh earlier said at a press conference, “There will be 100 padyatris who will walk from the start to finish. They will be Bharat Yatris. Around 100 people will keep joining from the states through which this yatra is not passing, these people will be Atithi Yatris. Around 100 yatris will be involved from the states through which the journey will pass, these will be Pradesh Yatris. At a time, there will be 300 padyatris.”

The march will include rallies and public meetings which will be attended by leaders like Sonia and Priyanka Gandhi.

Senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digvijaya Singh confirmed that Rahul will actively participate in the campaign but it’s not sure whether he would lead it, according to a report by The Print.

What’s the goal?

Congress leaders told News18 that the idea is to project the party as the only one that can be the thread to bring the nation together.

In a video message, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra urged people to join the Bharat Jodo Yatra wherever possible. She said that the yatra was needed as “negative politics was being practised in the country and real issues of the people were not being discussed”.

The yatra aims to put the focus on issues of the people such as price rise and unemployment, she added.

Rahul claimed that with all paths “blocked” by the government, Congress now has to go to the people and tell them the truth. That is why the party is undertaking the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, he added.

“The government has blocked all paths for us. The medium of Parliament is not there. Congress leaders, the opposition, and people cannot make speeches in Parliament. Our mic is put off. We want to talk about China’s attack but can’t do it. We want to talk about unemployment, but we can’t do that. Want to talk about inflation, can’t do that,” Rahul had said at the party’s ‘Mehngai Par Halla Bol Rally’.

“Our institutions, whether it is the media, Election Commission, judiciary, there is an attack on them, there is pressure on them. So, all the roads are closed for us. There is only one way left, to go to the people, the truth of the country has to be told to the people, that is why the party is undertaking the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” he had said.

At a joint press conference held earlier in Delhi, Ramesh and Singh claimed that the yatra will cater to the interest of the nation in the wake of economic inequality, social polarisation and political divisions in the country.

“The manner in which hatred is being spread in the country, central agencies are being misused, the rupee is falling, how the Constitution is being disrespected… Sonia Gandhi in the Udaipur Chintan Shivir had said that people from all walks of lives, from all religions and castes would join the ‘nafrat chhodo, Bharat jodo’ campaign,” Singh said.

Ramesh further said that the march is the “need of the hour” to counter rising inflation and unemployment.

Civil society members offer support

As per Indian Express, more than 200 civil society members including Swaraj India founder Yogendra Yadav, documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar, All India Secular Front’s Anil Sadgopal, rights activist Anjali Bharadwaj, theatre personality Anuradha Kapur, journalist Mrinal Pande, former MP Dharamveer Gandhi and ex-IAS officers Abhijit Sengupta and Sujata Rao have urged the public to support the yatra to defend against the “systematic assault” on the unity and democracy of India.

The objective of the march is to “stir the conscience of the people in times when the constitutional values and democratic norms are being brazenly undermined” and the very idea of India has come under a “systematic assault”, they said in a statement.

“Never before have an overwhelming majority of the farmers and workers, Dalits and Adivasis, women and religious minorities faced such effective exclusion in the shaping of the nation’s future,” they alleged. “Every one of us needs to say: No, not on my conscience. At stake is our unique pluralistic social fabric, which is our greatest civilisational inheritance, reflected in our Constitution.”

They appealed to the people: “Let us all make Bharat Jodo Yatra the decisive step towards renewing our pledge to reclaim an India that is a sovereign, socialist, secular and democratic republic with liberty, equality, justice and fraternity as its guiding lights.”

This comes after a national conclave, called the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra Conclave’ was organised in Delhi on 22 August, to discuss the plans for the yatra.

This conclave was attended by 150 civil society organisations.

According to a report by India Today, Rahul told the members of these societies that “time for us to unite and march in solidarity.”

Rahul said that the yatra is like a “tapasya” to him. He further said, “I know uniting India (Bharat Jodo) is going to be a long battle and I am ready for it.”

These organisations had extended their support to Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra.

The yatra anthem

The yatra anthem was launched at the AICC headquarters at a press conference by party general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh who said its lyrics — ‘Ek tera kadam, ek mera kadam, mil jaye, jud jaye apna watan’ — signify the objective of the yatra.

“Bharat Jodo Yatra, in no way in any form, is a Mann Ki Baat. It is about the concern for people. Its objective is to ensure that the concerns and demands expressed by the people reach Delhi,” he said in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monthly radio broadcast.

“It (yatra) is not about long speeches, preaching, dramatics, teleprompter, we are going to listen,” he said, adding that the Bharat Yatris, including Rahul, who will walk the entire distance of the yatra, are embarking on the journey with that objective.

Ramesh said there is a need for “Bharat Jodo” because the country is being divided.

“The first reason for the division is economic disparities, the second being social polarisation and the third political centralisation as states’ rights are being snatched away. So it is important to unite the country now. If not now, then when,” he said.

Asked who will be leading the yatra and when a new Congress president is elected on 19 October, if there will be a change in leadership of the yatra, Ramesh said Rahul is not leading, but walking along with others to highlight the issues of the people.

Ramesh said the yatra will also be live streamed on its official website.

The party unveiled the logo, tagline, pamphlet and website for the Bharat Jodo Yatra in August.

The Congress unveiled its tagline as Mile kadam, jude watan and said it hopes to unite the country.

Digvijaya Singh also invited people to join the yatra by registering on the official website.

With inputs from agencies

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