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Mumbai, India – Loud chants and songs on justice echoed round Shivaji Park in India’s monetary capital, Mumbai, as hundreds of individuals gathered on the iconic venue that had performed frequent host to rallies by freedom fighters when the nation fought for independence from the British a long time in the past.
This time, the slogans known as for a special “freedom” – from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Get together authorities.
On stage, Bollywood singers Vishal and Rekha Bhardwaj sang basic songs from fashionable movies, new and outdated. The park was decked in flags and life-sized cardboard cutouts of politicians from the opposition Indian Nationwide Congress (INC) occasion. Law enforcement officials have been in every single place, however the ambiance was festive – nearly resembling that of a rock live performance. The person on the centre of the occasion: Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi household that dominated India for many of its first 50 years after independence.
On Sunday night, Gandhi and a bevy of leaders from different opposition events launched the election marketing campaign of their Indian Nationwide Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) from Shivaji Park, a day after the Election Fee of India introduced dates for the world’s largest vote. Almost a billion Indians will elect their subsequent authorities in a seven-phase election that begins on April 19 and ends with the declaration of outcomes on June 4.
The INDIA alliance hopes to problem Modi’s BJP, which is aiming to win a 3rd straight time period in workplace, using on the again of the prime minister’s private reputation, even because the Congress and different critics have accused it of dividing the nation on spiritual traces and favouring choose industrialists.
On the coronary heart of the opposition alliance’s efforts are lengthy marches undertaken by Gandhi throughout the size and breadth of the nation, to galvanise help in opposition to Modi. His Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (Uniting India for Justice March) had culminated in Mumbai on Saturday.
The marches and Gandhi’s message of unity and justice resonated with supporters at Shivaji Park on Sunday.
Ganggu Bai, a 40-year-old cook dinner who lives in Mumbai’s Dharavi – one of many world’s largest slum clusters made well-known globally by the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire – was amongst these on the Sunday rally.
“I’m right here to help the way forward for our nation. and girls’s rights,” she mentioned. “This occasion offers me hope and looks like it’s truly for the folks of India,” she added.
However for Gandhi, the Congress and the INDIA alliance to show that sentiment right into a nationwide wave in opposition to the ruling authorities, they’ll want the votes of greater than their core supporters: Within the final nationwide elections in 2019, the Congress gained simply 52 seats within the Lok Sabha or decrease home of parliament, whereas the BJP gained an awesome majority with 303 seats.
Political message
Addressing the rally, Gandhi insisted that the INDIA alliance’s combat was not in opposition to a political occasion [referring to the BJP] or the prime minister – however for a imaginative and prescient of India.
“There’s a phrase ‘Shakti’ in Hinduism. We’re preventing in opposition to a Shakti. The query is, what’s that Shakti. The soul of the king is within the EVM (Digital Voting Machine) and each establishment of the nation, together with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Revenue Tax division,” he mentioned, including that these establishments are the one purpose the BJP is in energy.
The allegation: The “king” is Modi, EVMs might be hacked, and the federal government is utilizing regulation enforcement companies to coerce opposition members and enterprise leaders into submission.
#WATCH | Mumbai, Maharashtra: On the conclusion ceremony of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi says, “There’s a phrase ‘Shakti’ in Hinduism. We’re preventing in opposition to a Shakti. The query is, what’s that Shakti. The soul of the King is within the EVM. This… pic.twitter.com/lL9h9W0sRf
— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2024
A number of key politicians from the INDIA alliance, like Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Tamil Nadu state Chief Minister MK Stalin and former Maharashtra state Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the previous chief minister of Maharashtra, additionally attended the rally.
“Ab ki baar, BJP tadipaar [This time, the BJP will be exiled],” Thackeray mentioned and added that those that tried to divide them [the INDIA alliance] can be defeated.
“Wherever Rahul goes, it seems like a pageant,” Stalin instructed the cheering crowds.
Then, he alluded to the litmus check that awaits the alliance.
“The actual victory of Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra stands in defeating BJP and capturing Delhi,” he mentioned.
Are Gandhi’s marches working?
Gandhi’s rally at Shivaji Park got here a day after he concluded his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra – a 6,600km (4,100-mile) march from India’s east to west, with detours in every state he handed by means of. His promise: “panch nyay” or “5 pillars of justice” for girls, youth, farmers, labourers and justice when it comes to fairness.
Through the stroll, he introduced a one lakh rupee ($1,200) annual payout to each lady under the poverty line, and a 50 p.c reservation in in all new recruitments of central authorities jobs for poor households.
He started strolling on January 15 this 12 months within the conflict-torn northeast Indian state of Manipur, promising to deliver peace to the area the place tensions between the state’s primarily Hindu Meitei majority and the predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo have led to violence killing tons of and displacing greater than 60,000 folks. Traversing west from Manipur, Gandhi ended his stroll in Mumbai on March 16.
Beforehand, he additionally walked from South India all the way in which to Kashmir within the north, between September 2022 and January 2023, in a march known as Bharat Jodo Yatra (Unite India stroll), which targeted on preventing in opposition to poverty, unemployment and rising polarisation between Hindus and Muslims in India.
These messages are what impressed Sudha Prakash to stroll with Gandhi in his first Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“I walked to point out solidarity. I additionally walked to derive energy and hope from the hundreds of others who walked, every with their very own imaginative and prescient – and but one which was additionally shared – of a greater India for each single Indian,” Prakash, 60, who works as a trainer in elementary schooling in Mumbai, instructed Al Jazeera.
“I bought a possibility to satisfy so many individuals, folks from completely different elements of the nation, doing various things, belonging to completely different communities, representing so many Indias … it was fantastic. I got here again exhilarated, emotionally charged and crammed with hope,” she added.
Picture drawback
Aiyshwarya Mahadev, a spokesperson of the Indian Nationwide Congress hailed each the yatras as the most important workouts the Congress occasion has undertaken in its current previous to connect with the plenty.
“We wished to listen to the voices on the bottom and provides them a voice. So throughout each the yatras we noticed Rahul Gandhi listening to voices that hardly get heard, of individuals from communities which have been historically oppressed and marginalised,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
“This yatra just isn’t about political pomp or any chest thumping, It was truthfully about reaching the folks on the bottom, listening to their voices and changing into their voices. On this facet it has been a large success.”
However many Indians are usually not satisfied. The BJP has typically derisively termed snubbed Gandhi’s marches as designed to “break”, not “unite”, India.
Ujal Bhatia, a former Indian civil servant, mentioned he doesn’t imagine that Gandhi’s marches will result in electoral beneficial properties for the Congress.
“The narrative of the BJP holds sway over a lot of the nation – Hindutva, sturdy authorities plus welfarism which delivers palliatives to the poor,” he instructed Al Jazeera. Hindutva refers back to the Hindu majoritarian political ideology of the BJP. The Modi authorities has additionally, over its decade in energy, initiated a sequence of welfare schemes concentrating on girls and different historically deprived sections of society, although critics query the federal government’s claims on the size of supply of those programmes.
“Rahul will get a whole lot of good vibes from his travels however Congress cadres are weak and the Gandhi household is reluctant to cede energy to regional leaders,” Bhatia added.
Raj Malhotra, a 33-year outdated lawyer from Bangalore, shared an identical view.
“Sufficient folks within the nation are fed up with the divisive politics and crony capitalism however the opposition appears clueless in utilizing this to its benefit. An enormous a part of it’s because for greater than a decade, the Congress occasion has uncared for to concentrate to organisational weaknesses,” Malhotra instructed Al Jazeera and accused the occasion of nepotism and dynastic politics.
“Whereas Rahul Gandhi would possibly nonetheless be a viable candidate, he suffers from being made out to be a “pappu” by BJP’s propaganda manufacturing unit. The occasion actually must look inwards and kind its inside mess out,” he added. The BJP and its social media supporters have lengthy described Gandhi as “Pappu”, a pejorative in Hindi-speaking northern India for somebody who’s intellectually uninteresting.
‘Democracy’ vs ‘command and management’
Sam Pitroda, telecom engineer and adviser to 2 former Congress prime ministers of India, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, conceded that the occasion seems much more chaotic than the BJP. However that, he mentioned, was in essence what democracy is about.
“The BJP relies on command and management, whereas the Congress occasion just isn’t structured and based mostly on cooperation and co-creation. So typically this seems like chaos. However that’s the core design of the occasion,” he instructed Al Jazeera. “Folks get confused that arguments and disagreements over occasion insurance policies means there’s lack of organisation and unity. However if you’d like democracy, it’s a must to let folks argue and never be dictatorial.
“Rahul Gandhi can be a wise and succesful chief. It’s the BJP propaganda which invests in defaming him. How about earlier than elections we now have a nationwide debate between Gandhi and Modi after which we will see who the actual “pappu” is,” Pitroda mentioned.
Mahadev added that the marches have additionally performed a optimistic function in uniting the Congress occasion’s members and employees.
“Via the yatras, Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi [Rahul’s sister] and different leaders have been all on the bottom and the employees bought the possibility to satisfy and work together with them. That additional galvanised the cadre and emboldened them to work with renewed vigour,” Mahadev mentioned.
“It’s a actuality that in at present’s India, the voices of the opposition get stifled and at occasions, the longer term seems bleak, however by means of this type of engagement the place a employee is proven that the work that he’s doing on floor is essential, helps the occasion and is reminded of the massive function he performs in our success.”
What’s subsequent?
The INDIA alliance has additionally skilled fissures with key leaders exiting the bloc over political variations. However Mahadev mentioned that by means of the yatras, the opposition’s manifesto has been formed.
“After we did the primary part of the yatra, we walked by means of completely different states and interacted with completely different stakeholders throughout the board who spoke about their points. This helped form our narrative and gave us the idea for a number of of our manifesto,” she mentioned. “A number of regional events and our allies within the INDIA bloc even have representations and concepts which shall be put ahead as the guarantees we make throughout elections.”
Mahadev acknowledged that it was unclear how a lot the marches would straight result in votes for the Congress or its companions. However that, she mentioned, was by no means the first intention behind the yatras, in any case.
“His footsteps might not all the time rework into votes in place however the thought of the yatras was to speak to folks on the bottom who got here from varied socioeconomic constructions, vocations and even marginalised communities,” she mentioned. “These conferences weren’t political gatherings however his interactions to pay attention and to grasp their actuality, perceive their points and be a voice for them.”
For Gandhi, she mentioned, the marches have been about striving for “peace and unity”, and to “combat for India as a democracy”.
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