A ‘march to unite India’, led by Congress, reaches half-way mark
A nationwide “unity march” led by India’s main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has reached its 80th day and is currently winding through the streets of Madhya Pradesh state in central India.
The “Bharat Jodo Yatra” (or Unite India March) started from Kanyakumari, the southernmost point of India in Tamil Nadu state on September 7. It will cover 3,500 kilometres (2,175 miles) to reach Indian-administered Kashmir in the north – entirely on foot – in the next 70 days.
‘Safe space for Muslims’
Several Hindu right-wing groups operate in Karnataka, where the BJP government has passed a series of laws and orders banning the wearing of hijab in public schools or against alleged “forced conversions”. Activists say this form of “institutionalised communalism” has further marginalised the Muslims and incidents of hate and violence have increased.
“First, they get legitimacy in public and then it goes to the government assembly for validation. We as civil society have not responded enough and that’s their success,” Aishwarya Ravikumar of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties, told Al Jazeera.
Despite launching campaigns such as Say No to Hate, advocate Vinay Srinivasa feels the situation in Karnataka has only worsened. “Polarisation is driven by a wide institutional framework. The RSS is helped by a large section of the media. Classrooms are polarised, the society is deeply poisoned,” he said.
Given this situation Srinivasa says the “India unity march” has assumed a deeper significance. “We don’t know how it will address the root cause of polarisation. But the Congress has made it a safe space for Muslim men and particularly women to have their identity and participate in public. However, we must also think how bad the times are, that we have to laud a political exercise for creating this space,” he said.
It is an analogue 'yatra' (march) in the age of social media.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh told Al Jazeera the march is “not going to suddenly transform the communal scene” in India.
“It is an ideological battle. The important thing is, for the first time, the Congress is playing cricket on the pitch that it has prepared. Until now we were playing on a pitch that was doctored by the BJP,” he said.
“For the first time, we have set the narrative and agenda – that’s the difference. The real challenge will be to build on the momentum that is created by the yatra (march).”
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“Whether this effort will result in any political or electoral gains is a different question. The most important question this march has raised is this: is there a market for goodness? Currently, India has become a major market for toxicity. Will this analogue ‘yatra’ in the age of social media make goodness appealing to people?” - says Krishna Prasad, the former editor of Outlook magazine.
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