IMPHAL, Jan 14: With the words “Tiger zinda hai,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has refuted the BJP’s assertions that the outcomes of the 2024 election are certain. He believes that the opposition alliance will repeat the events of 2004, when the saffron party was overthrown from power in spite of its “shining India” campaign. In an interview, Ramesh stated that the “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” is an attempt to fortify the venerable Congress and that only a powerful Congress can guarantee a powerful opposition. Regarding the way the party will manage both the election campaign and its east-to-west yatra, Ramesh stated that the party has a structure in place and that Rahul Gandhi will participate in the campaign even if he is focused on the yatra.“By the time voting open, the yatra will be over. I anticipate that the elections will begin at some point, perhaps during the first week of April, by which point the yatra will have concluded. Zoom is a great place to hold meetings. I don’t see it as a problem,” he declared, brushing off worries that Gandhi’s arduous 6,700-kilometer yatra from Manipur to Mumbai may interfere with election preparations. Using a line from a well-known Hindi movie, Ramesh joked, “Tiger zinda hai, that is my constant refrain,” in response to questions concerning the BJP’s claim that the outcomes of the 2024 election were inevitable and what he would tell them. A number of leaders in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have declared that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would serve a third term in 2024 and that the party wants to win more than 400 seats. “All I can say is that in 2003, we lost Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh, people wrote the Congress off,” Ramesh responded when asked if he thought the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) could pull off a surprise in the general elections of 2024. At that time, India was thriving. According to Ramesh, the “anyay kaal” (time of injustice) of the previous ten years will have a greater impact on people than the “amrit kaal” dream. “Amrit kaal is a dream, anyay kaal is a nightmare,” he continued. Despite its loud and aggressive “shining India” campaign, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) administration was defeated in the 2004 elections by the Congress, which went on to form the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Ramesh commented, “A weak Congress cannot ensure a strong opposition,” in response to a question about whether the yatra will strengthen opposition unity given that the Congress party has invited all leaders of the INDIA bloc to participate along its journey. A robust opposition can only be guaranteed by a powerful Congress. The purpose of the “Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra” is to fortify the Congress. Speaking about the necessity of a yatra that followed the Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, Ramesh said that the yatra from Manipur is a continuation of that yatra and is based on the first line of the Constitution, which guarantees justice to all Indians. The Preamble is based on four pillars: equality, justice, liberty, and fraternity. The Congress national secretary stated, “Now, whereas liberty, equality, and fraternity constituted a large portion of the Yatra, we are now concentrating on the first pillar, which is listed in the first line of the Preamble: justice, economic, social, and political. “Therefore, the primary goal of this yatra is to advance the Bharat Jodo Yatra by emphasising the past ten years, which were not “amrit kaal,” but rather “anyay kaal,” and by outlining the Congress’s plan to guarantee social, political, and economic justice,” he stated. Moreover, the yatra serves as a conduit between the party hierarchy and internal structure. “We witnessed the Bharat Jodo Yatra results, and I am not evaluating them based on what transpired in Telangana or Karnataka. Rahul Gandhi was able to connect more easily and the organisation as a whole became more cohesive, as he previously noted. Accordingly, he continued, these connectedness and collectivity are crucial to the organisation.“Whether or whether this (yatra) will affect elections is not my main worry. It is a political party’s yatra. He declared, “It is an ideological yatra, not an electoral yatra.” According to Ramesh, he won’t evaluate the yatra based on how many seats the Congress anticipates winning in the polls taken in 2024. “In essence, Rahul Gandhi is trying to strengthen the Congress’s ideological message through this yatra by drawing attention to the different injustices that people have experienced and outlining the Congress’s and his own specific agenda for ensuring social, political, and economic justice over the course of the next 66 days,” the speaker stated. According to him, the yatra also aims to uphold democratic institutions, end one-man rule in the nation, and expose injustices committed against young people, farmers, and women. “Yes, the Congress party is ideologically devoted, but what Gandhi (and his attempts to communicate with the people) need from time to time is reinforcement and communication,” Ramesh added. According to him, it was also important to establish the agenda for public discourse and national politics, not just for the polls in 2024. “2024 is undoubtedly a halfway point that we must cross.We are not an NGO, therefore in the end, we must battle the polls. However, he made it clear that he would not consider that as a benchmark for choosing what activities to include in the yatra. 6,713 kilometres will be covered by the yatra, primarily in buses. In 67 days, it will traverse 110 districts and 100 LS seats before coming to an end in Mumbai on March 20 or 21.
