The Congress on Sunday declared that the message from the three-day Chintan Shivir was “Bharat Jodo” (Unite India), making it clear that the overriding concern was divisive politics that had left social harmony in tatters.
“The slogan given in 2022 is ‘Bharat Jodo’. That’s the message from this Chintan Shivir,” the Udaipur Declaration says, playing on the “Bharat Chhodo” (Quit India) call Mahatma Gandhi had sounded 80 years ago.
Sonia Gandhi, who had set the tone for the session by identifying religious polarisation as the gravest challenge before the country, announced a “Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra” from October 2, Gandhi Jayanti.
While Rahul Gandhi is expected to lead the march, Sonia said: “All of us will participate in it.”
The Udaipur Declaration says the BJP is promoting communal hatred to hide its failure on every front, and that minorities, Dalits and the poor are under attack like never before.
“The BJP is satiating its lust for power by sowing the seeds of hatred on the basis of caste and religion. India’s pluralism, brotherhood and inclusive politics are under attack,” the document says.
“There is a perverse conspiracy to divide people on the basis of religion, caste, food habits, clothes, language, region and colour. The bigotry of the current rulers has pushed even the economy into peril. This rings alarm for a grave danger to India’s present and future.”
The document accuses the Narendra Modi government of a range of misdeeds and failures, from weakening federalism to undermining institutions, and pledges to combat the RSS-BJP’s “amoral practices”.
Sonia said the Bharat Jodo Yatra was meant to “strengthen the bonds of social harmony that are under stress, to preserve the foundational values of our Constitution that are under assault, and to highlight the day-to-day concerns of crores of our people”.
“Phase 2 of the district-level Jan Jagran Abhiyan that had been launched earlier will also resume a month later, on June 15. This extensive campaign will highlight economic issues, especially the growing unemployment and intolerable price rise that is destroying livelihoods.”
Rahul, who addressed the session on Sunday, its concluding day, asked party members and workers to step out of their homes.
“Reach out to the people; re-establish the connect with the masses. It’s not a political battle, it’s about the country’s future. There are no short cuts. We were born out of people’s movements. That’s our DNA. Join the yatra that has been planned from October,” he said.
“My life is dedicated to fighting the ideology of the RSS-BJP, which spreads hate and violence in society. It is absolutely unacceptable to me that the country is witnessing so much hatred, so much anger, so much violence. It is not a battle against a party, it’s an ideological battle.”
He added: “We are fighting against institutions that have been captured by the RSS, against crony capitalists. I’m not scared. I will fight them. I have done no corruption, made no money illegally.”
Rahul said the Congress alone could lead this battle.
“Regional parties have their space, but they can’t fight this battle. Their approach is different. The BJP too understands this and that’s why they attack the Congress. They know that regional parties can’t replace them,” he said.
Rahul painted a gloomy economic scenario, citing the rising unemployment and inflation, but focused on the politics of divisiveness.
“The demographic dividend may turn into a demographic disaster. Aag lagegi — India will be on fire. The more they break the institutions and spread hate in the name of caste and religion, the bigger the fire,” he said.
“You either have conversations between the people and the states, or face violence. It’s our job to restore the conversation, to provide a platform for the dialogue. We have to convince the people that ‘you are being divided and that’s not good for the country’.”
Rahul referred to the institutional mechanisms for democratic conversation that the Congress had built while stressing that these institutions belonged to all citizens, not any individual.
“We see a systematic destruction of institutions that helped people talk to each other. Conversation is not allowed in Parliament. The judiciary is pressurised. The Election Commission is arm-twisted. The media is muzzled,” he said.
“Politicians know what the purpose of Pegasus is — it is to silence them. The people need to be convinced about what will happen when the democratic institutions stop functioning.”
The Congress has decided to use new technology to bolster its communication systems. Rahul admitted a deficiency on that front, regretting that the RSS-BJP had succeeded to a great extent in converting people to its viewpoints on religion and nationalism.
The Congress has also declared an intention to reform its organisational structure and ensure a continuous feedback from the ground.
An expansion of the organisational structure will help the party accommodate a larger number of leaders, addressing hurt feelings and controlling internal dissent.
