There’s an atmosphere of gloom in the country. Tempers are high. From TV debates to social media interactions, we are constantly fighting each other. Politics by its very nature invokes strong likes and dislikes, but such passions do not last beyond an election result. Cult politics however brings out the worst in all sides. The room for reasonable debate gets smaller and society is kept on the verge of a perpetual boiling point.

Even those who vote for the party in power, look up to the media and opposition to hold the government accountable. In a democracy, people not only choose their governments but also their opposition. Irrespective of who is in power and who is in opposition, the media and the opposition have a natural bonhomie with each other. Both need each other and society needs them both. The organised disruption of this robust democratic formulation has rendered the media discredited; the opposition without a voice and the country totally at the mercy of those whose publicly stated desire is accountability mukt Bharat.

The Congress party has been at the forefront (and mostly the only voice in the opposition space) in raising issues that affect the everyday lives of people. Despite numerical constraints, the party successfully forced the government on Land Acquisition. From demonetisation to Rafale, farm laws, Covid mismanagement, mishandling of the economy, Chinese aggression on our borders, the ticking time bomb of unemployment, most of the media alas chose to corner the opposition instead of the government. When traditional structures of mediation between the opposition and the people collapse, the template of politics automatically changes. Bharat Jodo Yatra is the Congress’ response to the organised disruption of democracy in the country. India needs a healing touch. Movements, agitations, opposition, media, civil society, writers, thought leaders are the ones who politicise societies around issues that require a collective political response. It is in the interest of Governments to keep societies by and large depoliticised, except during elections. Last eight years have seen a new and dangerous phenomenon: of the government politicising the society, in issues that are the ideological backbone of the ruling party. What we are witnessing is a clever way of being in power but politicizing the society against all those who can constitute the opposition to the government.

Imagine the situation where all the catchphrases hurled at rivals by the ruling party ecosystem get widely amplified by the media and the other side has no means of even getting heard. From Tukde Tukde gang to Award Wapsi gang to khan market gang, the ruling dispensation has ably controlled all available tools of communication to discredit voices of dissent. In such a situation, the only option left to the Congress party was to take to the streets and unite the country, highlighting economic disparities, social polarisation and centralisation of political power.

Bharat Jodo Yatra isn’t just about walking the 3,570 Kms from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, covering 12 states. It is not a roadshow of a political party. It is a dialogue. Bharat Jodo Yatra is an engagement - among and between the various ideas, the several streams of thought, the numerous aspirations, the disparate cultures. Bharat Jodo Yatra is the celebration of diversity as strength, instead of leaving it to the devices of those who see diversities as divisions.

As I write this on the 5th day of the Yatra, we have finished the Tamil Nadu stretch and are now in Kerala and on our way to Karnataka. All along the way, Rahul Gandhi has been constantly listening to the people he meets on the way and during interactions with various groups. In politics, we get too used to one way communications. Without even hearing what the people want to say, we let people believe that we have all the answers. Worse, some of us actually start believing that we do have all the answers. Rahul Gandhi will never claim to have all the answers and the solutions. But he definitely understands that India desperately needs to be heard. This is the India that exists outside the binary imposed on her by those in power. This is the India that lives in the questions she asks and not in the answers we think we have.

(The author is Chairman, Media & Publicity Department, All India Congress Committee)