‘Bharat Jodo Yatra introduced idea of love in politics,’ says Rahul Gandhi at University of Texas, US

Congress Member of Parlaiment (MP) and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has said that the Bharat Jodo Yatra introduced the idea of love in politics. Gandhi was interacting with the students at the University of Texas, Dallas in the United States of America on September 9. 

“The reason (behind conducting Bharat Jodo Yatra) is that all avenues of communication in India were shut. No matter what we did, it was all shut. We spoke in parliament. That's not televised. We go to the media, they don't pick up what we say. So all our avenues were shut,” Gandhi said during an interaction at the University of Texas. Gandhi is on a three-day visit to the United States.

"Then suddenly, we hit upon the idea… If the institutions aren't connecting us with the people, go directly to them. The best way to do that was to literally walk across the country. And so, that’s what we did...," he said.

The Two Versions of Bharat Jodo Yatra

Gandhi led two marches as part of Bharat Jodo Yatra. The first version, called the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, started on September 7, 2022 from the south in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, and concluded in the north in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on January 31, 2023 after covering 4080 kms, across 12 states.

The second version – the East to West ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ is started on January,14, 2024, from Thoubal in Manipur and covered 6713 kms through 15 states before culminating in Mumbai on March 16, 2024- four days before the scheduled end date, March 20.

"… it fundamentally changed the way I think about my work... It completely changed how I view politics, how I view our people, how I communicate, how I listen. To me, the most powerful thing that happened organically, was that we introduced certainly for the first time in India, possibly for the first time in many countries, the idea of love in politics. And this is strange... because... the political discourse in most countries, you will never find the word love... You'll find hatred, anger, unfairness, corruption... and the Bharat Jodo Yatra actually introduced that idea into the Indian political system," Gandhi told students.

The Congress leader also said that India has to think about the act of production and organising production. "It is not acceptable that India simply says, manufacturing or production is going to be the reserve of the Chinese... or Vietnamese... or Bangladeshis. We have to reimagine how to produce in a democratic environment. Until we do that, we will face high levels of unemployment," he said.

The Raebareli MP said that the act of production creates jobs. But India organises consumption, which is the reason of worry, he said. "If you look at the United States in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, they were the center of global production, Gandhi said.

"Anything that was made- cars, washing machines, TVs- all made in the United States. Production moved from the United States… to Korea,  to Japan. Eventually it went to China which is dominating global production. In India, the phones... furniture... clothes, are made in China. That's a fact. The West, America, Europe, India have given up on the idea of production and they've handed it to China. What we do, Americans do, the West does, is organise consumption. Uber, Foxconn, Mahindra, Bajaj organise production. These are the guys who create the jobs...," Gandhi said.

(With ANI inputs)