His full salt and pepper beard testifies to the kilometers already covered. Rahul Gandhi, long mocked for his chubby physique, his blundering swerves and his dilettantism, got rid of his youthful look. At 52, the heir to India’s most illustrious family is halfway through a long march that will take him from Tamil Nadu to Kashmir: 3,570 kilometers from South to North, one hundred and fifty days, five months for reconnect with the country and fight “politics of division”.
The Congress Party, which he represents and which dominated Indian political life for almost fifty years after independence, has sunk into limbo, reduced to the image of a dynastic and corrupt formation, inaudible and lazy, unable to counter the all-powerful Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Rahul Gandhi himself unsuccessfully challenged the Hindu nationalist twice – in 2014 and 2019 –, largely undermining his credit in public opinion. The direct descendant of three prime ministers came out wearing the nickname “papu”the simpleton, the idiot.
He started the “Bharat Jodo Yatra”, the “India Unity Rally”, on September 8 in Kanyakumari, in Tamil Nadu, the state where his father Rajiv, the former Prime Minister, was assassinated by Sri Lankan Tamil terrorists on May 21, 1991, in Sriperumbudur. Rahul Gandhi has since traveled between twenty-five and thirty kilometers a day at full stride, accompanied by 130 walkers and walkers, members of Congress from different regions of India, and above all a crowd of curious people.
From Tamil Nadu to Kerala, from Karnataka to Maharashtra, wherever he goes, he has been welcomed with unexpected fervor. In Indore, in Madhya Pradesh, on Sunday November 27, families jostled on the route, perched even on the roofs of buildings, to try to see him, brandishing tricolor flags, his portrait or that of Ambedkar (1891 -1956), the father of the Constitution, champion of equality, secularism, the fight against castes. The road decked out in party colors was overflowing with supporters. The success of his initiative surprised everyone, starting with the Congress, accustomed to biting the dust.
“The future of democracy is at stake”
“It is the first time since independence that a political leader has undertaken to cross the country on foot, to meet people of all classesenthused Noori Khan, 42, a walker, congressman from Madhya Pradesh. He is there to tell the truth, unlike Modi who was elected on lies and who rules by lies and division to hide the real state of the country, inflation and record unemployment. » For political scientist Gilles Verniers, professor at Ashoka University, near New Delhi, a sign is notable: “The rallying of civil society actors who had distanced themselves, very critical of the Congress and of the influence of the Gandhi family on the party. »
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