Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar during the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Ujjain district, Thursday, December 1, 2022 | Photo Credit: PTI
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is now passing through the Hindi heartland, and I recently joined it one morning near Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Mr Gandhi has said that traveling is an austerity – the backbreaking pace of walking across difficult terrain, usually covering 30 km a day, bears witness to this. What does he want to achieve politically from this? I’m not sure yet but have some tentative thoughts.
I am convinced that the Yatra is not at all about reorienting ourselves politically or reviving the Congress. I think Mr Gandhi has concluded that power politics is not his cup of tea. He has expressed his disapproval of the quest for power in the past. “Power is poison,” he once said—an idea not appropriate for a career in politics. But he remained active in electoral politics and after that statement became the president of the party. The 2019 election defeat left him with a feeling that his party colleagues were not supportive enough. He is watching the party steadily decline, caught in the endless rivalry of its leaders. Managing and exercising authority over them is not an easy task. Continued setbacks, betrayal by friends, and non-cooperation and disobedience by superiors, seem to have persuaded Mr. Gandhi to take a hard look at himself. When he says that traveling is austerity, he is echoing MK Gandhi’s logic of fasting. Mr. Gandhi seems to have left the party, and the party may have left Mr. Gandhi. Hence, my speculation is that Mr. Gandhi is marking a transition from a professional politician to a civil society activist through this visit. watch this space.
In the meantime, you can read my thoughts about the trip Here,
forest dweller or tribal
The tribes of India are called ‘tribals’ and ‘forest dwellers’, but the political connotations of these two words are quite different. line on this nomenclature It came to the fore again this week, when Mr. Gandhi accused the RSS of reducing the identity of tribals by calling them vanavasis, or jungle dwellers. Adivasi means native. The RSS believes that Vanvasi is a value neutral descriptive term, and is being criticized for questioning the original status of tribal people.
Untouchability still prevails in Tamil Nadu
Dravidian politicians often claim moral superiority, but caste-based discrimination and violence is prevalent in Tamil Nadu. A recent report of a hairdresser practicing untouchability brings this point to the fore again. papanadu police have Veeramuthu arrestedA barber from Nambivayal township in Orthanadu taluk, for practicing ‘untouchability’.