Rahul Gandhi's new yatra on cards

Rahul Gandhi would soon embark on yet another yatra. This time it would be from East to West covering about 3,500 kms. Fantastic and he needs to be congratulated for it. It is certainly a bold step for a 52-year- old man to decide to launch Phase-II of his yatra within couple of months of his Phase-I Bharat Jodo Yatra during which period he walked for 4,000 kms.

Certainly, it is not a small decision. Though the Congress party had lost one chance of converting it into an occasion to win over people during the first phase of Bharat Jodo Yatra, if properly planned and executed, this can come as another golden chance to channelise the anti-incumbency factor against BJP and reinvent Congress party. This was the initial reaction of Congress leaders. But a statement by Jairam Ramesh diluted the theme of yatra when he said it would largely be a padayatra but there are jungles and rivers on this route. "It would be a multi-modal yatra, but mostly it would be a padayatra." So, in one word it will be Bharat Jodo Yatra but not padayatra in true sense.

Whatever it may be, the big question is will the Congress party and its old guards work in the direction of designing the yatra as another event where Rahul will get time to see the countryside and play with children, click pics of some wild animals and continue to say that this has nothing to do with elections?

If the deliberations at Plenary are any indication it appears that the Congress party will not come up with concrete strategies to re-invent the party and restructure the organisation. The past president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said she will retire from politics. Within 24 hours the bhajan mandali says she never said she will retire. But the fact is she is tired now. Even that fact the Congress leaders do not want to accept and love to live in make-believe world.

The Plenary decided to keep attacking Adani. Fine but Adani alone is not what is bothering the common man. He may be bothering many Congress leaders who had perhaps invested in his companies or bought shares in the stock market and are now worried about the loss they would suffer along with Adani.

What is required to make the Bharat Jodo Part-II Yatra a success is powerful speeches which can reignite the enthusiasm in the cadre and drive them to work towards next polls. As of now no such indication is available. Jairam Ramesh said there was a lot of enthusiasm and energy among party workers for another yatra but it may not have such an elaborate infrastructure that was mobilised for the Bharat Jodo Yatra and may have less yatris, he said.

People are not interested in lectures on what is Satyagraha. Because in the present-day political world there is no real Satyagrahi. So, it would be better if Baba Rahul focusses on the ground-level problems of people how the government policies according to him had made the life of common man miserable and what the possible solution would be. Comparing what an industrialist like Ambani or Adani earns per day and what a farmer earns also makes no sense because such big industrialists cannot be compared with agriculture and the revenue from it. They are two different sectors.

It would make sense if he highlights the problems of farmers and explain with data if their lives had further deteriorated from the period when UPA was in power and if so how and tell them what Congress would do if it comes to power. He should be able to communicate with people and tell them their agenda and seek their support. Sermons and jibes will not lead Congress anywhere and the multi-modal yatra will end as another lost opportunity.