Diary of a congressman: on the road with bharat jodo yatra

THE BEGINNINGS It’s 7 am on September 7 at the Vivekananda Polytechnic College in Kanyakumari. You can’t plan for everything. Jairam Ramesh, MP and general secretary of the Congress, knows

this well. He’s spent gruelling, draining months leading the planning for this moment, what he calls “a day when India’s oldest political party will launch the longest padyatra ever”. It’s

the first day, the first morning, the first moment of our 3,500-km trek across 12 union states and two union territories. We’re inside a high-security restricted camp. A neat row of 60

flatbed mounted containers form our overnight sleeping spaces. A cavernous tented contraption forms our dining hall, while a flagpole in the centre ties these elements together. Just outside

is a crush of media and crowds. You can hear drums, chants and slogans in the distance. Inside, it’s still, like the eye of a cyclone. Some 120 yatris and an array of Congress heavyweights,

Rahul Gandhi included, are clustered around the flagpole. There’s a flag-raising ceremony, _Vande Mataram_ and the national anthem are sung. Soon, Gandhi moves ahead and outside. The

yatris, in serried ranks of dazzling white, want to go with him. You can almost taste their energy and anticipation – they’ve spent months applying and preparing and planning for this

moment. But, as we know too well, you can’t plan for everything. There’s a slight, almost unnoticed, wrinkle. “Star yatri” Kanhaiya Kumar doesn’t want to get into formation. He’s standing to

the side, arms folded. I sidle up to him and ask what’s going on. “I refuse to be imposed upon in any way, shape or form,” says the man who, a few years ago, was jailed for refusing to be

imposed upon in any way, shape or form by the government of India. “I’ll march all right, but will not get into a formation, nor wear a uniform.” He adds helpfully, “That’s why I left the

communists too.” The other yatris are, of course, in whites and in formation. But this is nothing major, not a headline moment for those who’d love a quick and easy controversy. It’s just

one of the many quirky, inspiring, frustrating, draining, exhilarating moments that comprise this long journey. Hours later, I meet Kumar on the road, walking and chanting slogans with the

best of them. In the days ahead, he will prove to be an inspirational, unique individual who marches to the beat of his own drum. Finally, we move. DAY 1 Like a cork popping out of a

champagne bottle, we squeeze through the gates onto the adjoining road. And all mayhem breaks loose. MP Digvijaya Singh is already barking commands at individual yatris. “Please line up

there!”, “Get out of the way of the vehicles”, and so on. But it’s hard to make out individual words, such is the noise. There seem to be thousands of people lining the roads. Party workers

yelling and gesticulating, families on their verandahs or on the streets, bemused and excited as they watch this kilometres-long caravan of colour, movement and noise. Media teams

frantically scurry back and forth. Within a few hundred metres, it’s hard to maintain any semblance of marching order. It’s harder still to comprehend the magnitude of it.