The Fact About Rahul Gandhi’s Lengthy March to Kashmir

Bharat Jodo Yatra actually means an India uniting march.  Not too long ago, the nice grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, accomplished this march after strolling from the south to the north of the nation. His goal was to unite Indians in opposition to hatred and worry in society. The march was additionally geared toward boosting the Congress Celebration for 2024 elections. The march began in Kanyakumari, the southernmost level of India, and resulted in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir within the north. 

Rahul Gandhi, Nehru’s nice grandson, claimed that the march was protected and hate-free. That declare turned out to be unfaithful when he entered the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. By the point the march ended on January 30, the air was thick with stress and allegations.

For many years, Jammu and Kashmir has suffered from political and navy insurgencies. When Gandhi commenced on the final leg of his march, your entire opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) joined him. The Congress scion claimed that he was “warned of grenades however Kashmir gave [him] love and hugs.” The reality will not be precisely as simple. Jammu and Kashmir has lengthy fallen out of affection with the Congress Celebration.

Congress has tortured historical past in Jammu and Kashmir

After independence, the Congress Celebration misplaced the belief of Jammu and Kashmir. When Pakistan despatched irregulars to take over Kashmir, India despatched in its troops to defend the state. Each the king and Kashmiri leaders turned to India to flee the violence inflicted on them by Pashtun tribesmen. As prime minister, Nehru overruled opposition to take the difficulty to the United Nations. He additionally pushed by way of Article 370. Jammu by no means reconciled itself to both choice. Neither did Ladakh, which till 2019, was part of the state.

The deadly sin of the Congress got here below Rajiv Gandhi, Nehru’s grandson and Rahul Gandhi’s father. He ordered the authorities to rig the 1987 state elections and set up Farooq Abdullah as chief minister. Like Rajiv, Abdullah inherited his place, as an alternative of incomes it. Abdullah’s father had been Nehru’s modern and had even been jailed by the prime minister.

The rigging of the election prompted many Kashmiris to lose religion within the political course of. They deserted the poll for the bullet. Separatists rose to the fore. Society degenerated. Pakistan despatched mercenaries and Islamic fundamentalists to the state. Name of jihad arose, resulting in the ethnic cleaning of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandit minority. They fled for his or her lives and have but to return to Kashmir.

Over time, the Congress deserted Kashmir utterly. Gandhi’s march was an empty gesture that has not received again the hearts and minds of the native inhabitants. The BJP authorities abrogated Article 370 in addition to Article 35A on August 5, 2019. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two union territories: Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir. This choice was widespread in Ladakh and Jammu however unpopular in Kashmir. Neither the Congress nor Rahul engaged with this difficulty. Their assist dwindled additional in Jammu and Kashmir. This present stroll culminated in Kashmir as a result of Rahul is taking part in conventional Indian vote financial institution politics and gunning for the Muslim vote.

Nehru’s nice grandson performs divide and rule

In his deal with at a public rally in Jammu, Gandhi spoke about unemployment, inflation and restoration of statehood. He additionally referred to “outsiders” making an attempt to grab land and jobs from the folks of Jammu. This assertion is extremely problematic within the context of final 12 months’s killings of poor migrant staff in Kashmir by Islamic terrorists.

Gandhi is taking part in divide and rule to draw votes. In Tamil Nadu, he raked up Dravidian ideology to stir emotion in opposition to the BJP. In Kerala the place he was elected to parliament, Gandhi dwells on the north-south divide. In West Bengal, Gandhi has used derogatory language in opposition to Gujarati businessmen and politicians to undermine Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Non-Indians may do properly to keep in mind that Modi was chief minister of Gujarat earlier than changing into prime minister and that Gujarati businessmen have lengthy thrived in India’s former colonial capital Kolkata, now the capital of West Bengal.

Gandhi made a present of sympathy for Kashmiri Pandits. He met a delegation of protesting  Pandit workers who’ve been protesting for greater than 250 days since Islamic terrorists killed members of their group. A small variety of Kashmiri Pandits are posted to Kashmir and so they worry for his or her safety. Therefore, they’ve been demanding relocation to Jammu. Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has demonstrated a tone-deaf angle on the difficulty as has Amit Shah, India’s highly effective dwelling minister. To his credit score, Gandhi promised to boost this difficulty within the Indian parliament and stored his promise. But Gandhi’s sympathy lacks credibility as a result of he has lengthy flirted with harmful Islamists. Nehru’s inheritor was training divisive id politics to realize votes.

The Opposition Gangs Up

Over the past stage of Bharat Jodo Yatra, many opposition events joined Gandhi. Leaders from the Nationwide Convention, Folks’s Democratic Celebration and Shiv Sena marched with Nehru’s scion. Many members of civil society joined them too. Few talked about or cared to keep in mind that, earlier than the BJP authorities took energy in 2014, the federal government of Jammu and Kashmir wouldn’t enable any opposition chief from coming into the state on safety grounds. Gandhi and his posh mates may declare that Kashmiris met them with open arms however the actuality is that Kashmiri Pandits are nonetheless being threatened and killed.

The fact is that the opposition needs to unseat the BJP within the 2029 elections at any price. This march was a helpful method for the opposition to check the waters. For the Congress, it was their likelihood to mission the nice grandson of Nehru because the pure inheritor to his legacy and because the undisputed chief of the social gathering. This dynastic social gathering believes and hopes that the identify recognition of Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi is essential to their success. True believers within the Congress assume that Rahul’s lengthy march has emblazoned him as a fourth era prime minister of the Nehru household.

On his half, Gandhi is making guarantees he can not hold. He’s stirring up grievances left, proper and middle. Nehru’s scion is widening each is fissure and fanning each grievance in society. Such politics has been accomplished earlier than and has labored for temporary durations. Nonetheless, training makes mockery of Bharat Jodo Yatra, which was purportedly to unite India. Gandhi has the appears to be like, the stamina and the bloodline besides however he lacks three key qualities elementary to management: judgment, foresight and integrity. [Sukhjeet Kaur edited this article.]

The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Truthful Observer’s editorial coverage.