Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said Bharat Jodo Yatra is a good first step for the party in connecting with the people but is "no magic wand" and there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
At a press conference in Kothur during the Bharat Jodo Yatra passing through Telangana, he said the Congress stands for a certain vision of India and if it defends that perspective and fights for it, the party will naturally connect with the people.
Asked about his remarks at the Udaipur chintan shivir earlier this year that the Congress' connect with the people had been broken, Gandhi insisted that he had stated that the connect had weakened.
"The connect of the Congress party with the people has not broken in any way, but it has weakened. This is a good first step in connecting with the people, it (Yatra) is not a magic wand, but it is a good step," the former Congress chief said.
"The Congress party is an idea. It stands for a certain vision of India. It stands for a certain perspective of where the country should go. If the Congress party defends that perspective and if it fights for that perspective, it will naturally connect with the people of India. So this is a good first step, but, I think, there is a lot of work that has to be done," he said.
Asked whose idea it was to embark on the Yatra, Gandhi said he had wanted to undertake such a journey but then Covid struck and it became difficult to travel, leading to the postponement of the idea.
"It was in my mind that I personally wanted to walk and it was in the minds of two to three other people from the Congress party who also suggested this. So it came first in my mind or their mind, I don't know," he said.
To this, senior party leader Jairam Ramesh added it was Gandhi's idea.
"To be honest, the first time I thought this, I was 25-26 years old. At that time I was not even in politics and I could not do it... there was this desire inside and I feel very good now," Gandhi said.
He said the Yatra was a way to fight with the BJP and RSS and it would benefit the Congress, but for him, it was also a personal journey.
"I am getting to learn a lot. There is a lot to understand about India," Gandhi added.
Asked whether the response he is getting during the march will translate into votes, Gandhi said these questions are designed to distract from the core idea of the yatra and his job is to carry out this march from Kanyakumari to Srinagar.
The lakhs of people who are coming in the yatra are demonstrating what being Indian means, he said.
"They are demonstrating that being Indian means respecting other Indians, being affectionate, being loving to other Indians. This is extremely powerful and it is a very humbling thing for me to see how wise Indians are,” Gandhi said.
To a question if the Yatra was for fitness purposes and why it was not going to poll-bound states, Gandhi shot back saying that this was sounding a lot like a BJP spokesperson.
"The route is from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. We cannot do a yatra that goes to every state in the country. So, we have taken a decision that we are going to take a route and we are covering as many states as we possibly can.
"The idea of the yatra is to send a message to the people of India that we are not going to stand for the hatred and the violence that the BJP is spreading," the former Congress chief said.
"We are not going to accept the type of economic model that the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is running. We are not going to accept the capture of the institutional framework that the BJP is doing. In case, you have not seen, many Congress people and non-Congress people coming (to the yatra). Let me inform you, workers of other parties are also coming," he said responding to a question on whether there was a need for 'Congress jodo' as the BJP often asks.
Gandhi asserted that the march is a political action, not a sports yatra.
It is a political action against the way the BJP and the RSS are "dividing the country and damaging it, and spreading hatred and violence", he said.
"This is a completely political action and the aim is to spread the message across India that the hatred and the violence that the BJP is spreading, are weakening the country. Those are anti-national activities and it is not Indian culture.
"Indian culture is harmonious, peaceful, and affectionate. That is the idea behind the Yatra and it is a hundred per cent political message," Gandhi added.
