- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Indian National Congress, one of the country’s main opposition parties which had played a leading role during the freedom struggle against colonial rule but has found an existential crisis in the Narendra Modi era, was set to launch a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (United India Movement) on Wednesday (7) from Kanyakumari in the southernmost tip of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will officially launch the movement on Wednesday while the actual foot march will kick off on Thursday (8).
The party said the ‘yatra’ has no connection with any election purpose and solely aims at “uniting India”. Senior member and former central minister Jairam Ramesh said the programme will mark a “transformational moment” for Indian politics and in rejuvenating the grand-old party which has ruled India for most period post Independence in 1947 but has been out of power since 2014.
The Congress has witnessed an implosion in recent months with a number of big faces exiting it, the latest being former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who brought explosive allegations against Rahul Gandhi for the party’s electoral debacle and suggested that it should have taken up a ‘Congress Jodo’ (Unite the Congress) programme first instead of ‘Bharat Jodo’.
The party is also due to hold an election to choose its next president but Rahul Gandhi’s reluctance has also left it in limbo.
The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, which looks to be inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s strategy of holding marches to mobilise people, will cover 3,750 kilometres in 150 days and will conclude in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the northernmost province of India.
The participants will not stay in any hotel during the ‘yatra’ and will spend nights in containers. At least 60 containers have been arranged, some of which are fitted with sleeping beds, toilets and air-conditioning machines. Rahul Gandhi is supposed to stay in one container alone for security reasons.
The ‘yatris’ will eat on the road and will be provided with laundry services. Arrangements have also been made in a way so that the yatris do not find themselves in inconvenience under changing weather conditions during the five months.
The movement is supposed to take place for six to seven hours daily and there will be two batches of ‘yatris’ — a morning and evening one, Hindustan Times reported.
The movement will take place through states such as Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
