The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra arrived in Delhi last week and will continue its journey to Kashmir after a break. In Bihar, on January 5, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will undertake another pan-state yatra — over the years, he has done several. Both the West Bengal and Bihar Congress units have announced state-level yatras. In Rajasthan, where elections are due next year, the BJP has been on a Jan Aakrosh Yatra since December 1 as part of its campaign against the state’s Congress government. In late January, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu’s son, N Lokesh Naidu, is set to go on a state-wide padayatra to highlight the failures of the YSR Congress government. The high-profile Bharat Jodo Yatra may have sparked a conversation on the efficacy of this mode of political outreach but this is an idea that has persisted since the days of Mahatma Gandhi. Despite the many leaps in technology and communication moving to the digital space, it refuses to fade away. Its resilience marks the reassertion of an old belief perhaps: Politics is essentially about people and personal contact remains key.
The yatra is not enough. There is much work to be done to lend it meaning or lasting effect. A robust organisation is necessary to harness and channelise the energy generated by a yatra, build on its message, take it to the voters. There has to be clarity about the message, but the messenger is also key. It takes the hard labour of politics to take the journey to a destination.
