Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra at Right Time, to Keep Idea of India Alive: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi

New Delhi: As the Congress faces questions about failing to finalise seat-sharing arrangements with INDIA alliance partners for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, party MP and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi has said that Rahul Gandhi’s east to west Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra is being conducted at the “right time”.

In an interview with The Wire, Gogoi said that the yatra which started on January 14 has given a platform to the northeast and brought to the forefront the issues of ordinary citizens that have been “denied their rightful space” in the public discourse, including the ongoing ethnic conflict in Manipur, and corruption in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Assam government.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi started the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from the northeast in Manipur’s Thoubal on January 14. The yatra will cover 6,700 km and end in Mumbai, Maharashtra and touch 110 districts, 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 assembly constituencies in what is the biggest mass outreach ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Assam leg of the yatra has seen Gandhi’s yatra in a head-on collision with the Himanta Biswa Sarma state government. On Tuesday an FIR was lodged against Gandhi after three days of permission refusals including to visit the Batadrava Than, BJP supporters surrounding his convoy chanting “Jai Shree Ram” slogans, attacks on Congress MP Jairam Ramesh’s vehicle, and skirmishes with the police in Guwahati that also left Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah injured.

Gogoi, who is the MP from Assam’s Kaliabor said that there has been a “deliberate attempt to escalate misconduct around the yatra” at Sarma’s behest who is being used as a “pawn by the powers in Delhi”.

Read his full interview below, some answers have been shortened for brevity.

With the yatra starting in the northeast from Manipur, how has the reception been so far?

The reception has been fantastic. The people of the northeast really wanted to see Rahul Gandhi from up close. In the past we have seen him especially during elections but now we are seeing him spend a considerable amount of time on the road going through different villages and towns.

I know people of the northeast have a very special connection with the Congress. Many states received their political independence during Congress rule and people have fond memories of when Rajivji (Gandhi) visited. I know people of Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur are very happy to have Rahul Gandhi spending so many days on the road with them.

It's really good to see the culture of the northeast, the diversity of our tribes being respected so beautifully on this yatra which has become a platform to showcase the beauty and the rich heritage of India's northeast.

With this yatra being more of a bus yatra and not a padyatra like the previous one, there have been concerns that ordinary citizens haven’t been able to join in large numbers. Has that limited the mass connect of the yatra in comparison to the last?

I don't think so, because the last yatra did not travel to the northeast. The last yatra was a padyatra. For the people of the northeast the only reference we have of a big political leader spending time is when the political leader comes to the capital city or a Central cabinet minister goes to the ground on a helicopter. So for the people of the northeast this has been an absolutely new, very novel and heartwarming experience.

The Assam leg of the yatra has been eventful to say the least, from permission denials to Rahul Gandhi’s convoy being surrounded, attacks on the convoy, and clashes with the police. How do you see these developments?

The sequence of events in Assam has been quite unfortunate and raises in my mind very serious concerns about the safety of Shri Gandhi. We are seeing a deliberate attempt to escalate misconduct around the yatra. I feel there has been a deliberate attempt by the BJP administration here to create an environment where tomorrow an unruly miscreant can harm Mr Gandhi and he could be injured. It's unfortunate because the Assam police is not doing its duty. They are allowing this hooliganism and vandalism which is increasing by the day. And this is being done at the behest of the chief minister who is only being used as a pawn by the powers in Delhi.

Was it a conscious decision to visit the Batadrava Than because the Ram Temple consecration ceremony was taking place on the same day – a symbolic gesture from the Congress?

Not at all. We are just following the route of the yatra. We had already given the route of the yatra in terms of the number of days that we will be spending in each state. And if you start the yatra in Manipur and you spend two days there, and then two days in Nagaland and then eight days in Assam-by virtue of this calendar itself on 22nd we were going to be in Nagaon. We were only 30 km from Batadrava Than. Rahulji has always been inspired by Sankardev and has mentioned his philosophy many times on this yatra and how this yatra itself follows Sankardev's philosophy. So it was very natural for him to pay his respects when he was only a few minutes away from his birthplace. It is unfortunate that everybody was allowed to visit the Than, over the past few days, and only a day ago the CM put pressure on the Than committee to deny permission to Rahul Gandhi which is absolutely unheard of in the history of the Batadrava Than that a public representative has been denied entry and it only vitiates the legacy of Sankardev.

And we know the reason why the chief minister did not want the spotlight to be on Sankardev and Batadrava Than. The chief minister wanted the spotlight in the media to be on Prime Minister Modi and that just shows the standards of the BJP. For them Prime Minister Modi is over Sankardev and that is unfortunate. By denying permission it is a blot on the legacy of Sankardev, Vaishnavite Hinduism and the Batadrava Than in Assam.

The yatra comes just four months ahead of Lok Sabha elections. But the party has made it clear that it’s not an electoral yatra but rather an ideological one. Some INDIA alliance partners like the JDU’s K.C. Tyagi have questioned the timing of the yatra and said this was not the right time for it. Would you say that this was the right time for it, especially if it’s purely ideological and not electoral?

As I said, the people in the northeast really wanted Rahul ji to visit in his first yatra. And it was on Rahul ji's mind that he had seen India by walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and now he wanted to see India from east to west. It was his personal desire and what people of India wanted and the northeast wanted. In Assam during last year's yatra I remember that when we did a padyatra we were stopped at many places and common people said that ‘we are glad you have come as state leaders but when can we see Rahulji?’ I am glad that the yatra is taking place at this time.

With the party organisation focusing on the yatra, will it hamper the preparations for the Lok Sabha polls?

I don't think so because the yatra has brought to the forefront several issues. For instance the issue of Manipur – the fact that it is still divided, people are being killed, students are unable to resume their studies still – these issues are coming to the forefront. Similarly in Assam, corruption has touched new heights under this government, especially with the chief minister and his family members being involved in the plunder of land and the obscene amount of land and properties they have acquired in the last few years. These issues are on the minds of the people and had it not been for the yatra they would have never reached the mainstream media or the level of public attention that it is reaching now.

I am glad that the yatra is bringing forward the real issues that affect people, whether it is corruption or unemployment or law and order in the northeast or inequality in society, and how the BJP is suppressing the media and intimidating people especially those who want to discuss these issues.

The fact that our own party and our convoy has been attacked and the way the BJP has been trying to intimidate us by creating a risk to Rahulji's life and convoy just exposes the way in which the BJP behaves in most parts of the country.

They threaten, they intimidate, they bully and I think that is why all their efforts have been exposed in what they have done in Assam so far.

It is very necessary for the yatra to hold steadfast and Rahul Gandhi to be a positive champion of democracy because it gives courage to the people to speak up to those in power.

There is still no clarity about whether alliance partners will join the yatra including Mamata Banerjee and reports have said that Akhilesh Yadav may also not join. Will we see INDIA alliance partners joining as the yatra enters Bihar, Bengal and UP?

In Manipur at the flag off event we saw on stage itself state leaders belonging to the INDIA alliance. In Assam also [Mallikarjun] Kharge met leaders of the INDIA alliance parties. So the INDIA alliance has already been part of this yatra through its state leaders.

I think it is just a perception being created by the BJP to divide the INDIA alliance and sow seeds of mistrust. All these efforts of the BJP to try and divide us and create mistrust between us has come to naught. We are strong and on a very good wicket and we are extremely positive, and I really believe the combined weight of our organisations and ideological beliefs will be a force in the 2024 elections.

With top leaders engaged in the yatra, have seat-sharing talks suffered with INDIA members?

The Congress has created a team of very senior leaders to discuss seat sharing including Mukul Wasnik, Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel and Mohan Prakash. And I am very confident that behind closed doors our discussions have reached a very advanced stage. There are details that we would like to keep confidential as an alliance till they are finalised.

More importantly, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has come at the right time because the main issues affecting ordinary  workers, farmers, shopkeepers have been denied their rightful space in public discourse.

We saw in the suspension of 146 parliamentarians how spaces to ask questions to power are continuing to shrink. Therefore at a time when media is under attack, institutions are under attack, law enforcement agencies are being misused it is the efforts of opposition political parties which is keeping the idea of India, of the Constitution, idea of democracy, values of universal humanity alive so we are the last line of defence for the idea of India and the Indian Constitution.

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