BJNY Winds Up With A Nyay Sankalp Padyatra
Mar 17, 2024 | Pratirodh Bureau
A huge turnout was seen as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra drew to a close in Mumbai on March 16 (Photo: Congress on 'X')
On March 17, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi undertook a Nyay Sankalp Padyatra from Mani Bhawan, once the home of Mahatma Gandhi in south Mumbai.
Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of the Mahatma and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with Congress supporters, joined the foot march. The procession made its way towards the August Kranti Maidan, where the Quit India movement was initiated in 1942, during India’s struggle for independence from British rule.
Members belonging to some of the Opposition parties in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc also joined the Gandhis in the rally.
On Sunday evening, the Opposition INDIA bloc is set to hold a joint rally in Mumbai in a show of strength. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejasshwi Yadav and Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin are scheduled to take part in the event.
The Congress MP, on Saturday, March 17, concluded his 63-day-old Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Mumbai. He paid tribute to Dr B.R. Ambedkar at the Chaitanyabhoomi Memorial in central Mumbai and read aloud the Preamble of the Constitution. The former Congress president was accompanied by party general secretary and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
The Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, commonly referred to as the Nyay Yatra, started on 14 January 2024 from Thoubal in Manipur. It was aimed at the party’s electoral engagement across the breadth of the country and seen as a strategy for the upcoming national elections. This political tour was a sequel to the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
The Congress Party had said that the initial Bharat Jodo Yatra brought attention to economic disparity, societal division, and an autocratic approach to governance. In contrast, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra was aimed at prioritizing the pursuit of social, economic, and political justice for the nation’s citizens. The slogan (tagline) of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra was ‘Nyay Ka Haq Milne Tak’ (“Until we get our right to justice”).
The course of action was announced on 27 December 2023 by Congress MP and party general secretary (organisation) K. C. Venugopal after Congress Working Committee’s deliberation on 21 December 2023. This campaign saw Rahul Gandhi utilizing a bus for transportation, while also engaging in short walks for certain distances which covered 14 states and 85 districts. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge inaugurated this political campaign, aiming to encompass a significant number of states that were previously not included in the Bharat Jodo Yatra conducted earlier. The 66-day-long journey spanned a distance of 6,200 kilometers, passing through Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat before finally concluding in Maharashtra.
In total, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra aimed to encompass 355 Lok Sabha seats across 6,713 kilometres (4,171 miles), which accounts for approximately 65% of the entire parliamentary seats in the nation. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP emerged victorious in 236 out of these 355 seats, while the Congress party secured a mere 14 seats. The Bharat Nyay Yatra was rechristened as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, with regard to the previous Bharat Jodo Yatra. The Congress had initially planned the march from Arunachal’s Pasighat to Porbandar in Gujarat, the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, but the ethnic violence in Manipur since May prompted it to change its plan.
The Congress party explained the reason behind selecting Manipur as the initial destination for the yatra, stating that the objective of this campaign was to initiate the process of “mending the wounds” of the inhabitants of the northeastern state. The 2023 Manipur violence had recently experienced a severe bout of ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities, which led to a staggering death toll of over 200 individuals and left approximately 60,000 individuals displaced from their homes.