India’s most legendary ‘yatri’ is Lord Ram. For 14 years, the god-king in exile travelled through Bharat, transcending endless tribulations and accompanied only by his wife Sita and brother Lakshman. He neither had the royal chariot nor the steeds of Dasarath’s stables to make his journey easier; least of all an air-conditioned bus euphemistically called a ‘rath.’
The culmination of Ram’s journey was war; good against evil. His yatra’s message was simple and poignant: Dharma’s battle against Adharma is not fought in comfort. This is the core of the Hindu belief of renunciation.
Sadly, no such virtues embellish the roadrunners of Indian politics. It’s raining yatras. BJP’s paterfamilias L K Advani, who has come out of vanvas, finishes the latest of his five yatras — Jan Chetna Yatra — on Sunday. Each of these covered around 12,000 km, which puts 60,000 km on his career’s speedometer. Unlike Ram, he travels in an AC bus in the company of senior political colleagues and relatives. There is no deprivation, only the fatigue of an 84-year-old spreading his carbon footprint as the BJP’s undeclared prime ministerial candidate. Perhaps, Advani believes his yatras are the roadmap to 7, Race Course Road. Meanwhile, the BJP’s Rajnath Singh and Kalraj Mishra also undertook ‘Swabhiman Yatras’ in Uttar Pradesh. At every stop, there were soft drinks, speeches and slogans. Not just the Ram temple, but “We Want Ram Rajya!” is their new clarion call. In the East, BJP-ally Nitish Kumar, embarked on the 100-day Seva Yatra through the countryside of all 38 districts of Bihar. It is his sixth. All were meant to put him in touch with the reality of Bihar: as his rath approached, ruined roads were hastily being repaired. In 2009, Nitish undertook the ‘Vikas Yatra;’ taking a leaf from Rahul Gandhi’s Lonely Planet, he spent the night in villages — no wonder Nitish calls Gandhi, “the natural successor in the Congress.” Imagine the CM’s arrogance, holding janata durbars; durbars in Bihar and UP are still held, and by feudal lords.
Journeys become pilgrimages when imbued with cause — for the sake of God or humanity. The travels of Sankaracharya — Hinduism’s first great prophet — from Kerala to Badrinath, was a discovery of India and a spiritual odyssey. Centuries later, Mahatma Gandhi travelled second class by rail, getting to know India and its people. He took a 12,500 mile journey between November 1933 and August 1934 to promote Harijan rights. More than a decade later, when Partition riots broke out in East Bengal in 1947, Gandhi undertook his famous padayatra to Noakhali. Netaji’s grand-nephew and historian Sugata Bose describes that walk a ‘tragedy’ — “the fact that Gandhiji was ultimately a lone figure in Noakhali”. But singularity is the subtext of all such passages, focussing spotlight on the solitary traveller as a prophet of his message. The message of his journeys was simple: “Walk the Talk”. Gandhi is the one who fashioned padayatra as a powerful political tool. In 1984, Chandrasekhar, that much-maligned leader, followed suit and went on a padayatra; walking thousands of miles from Kanyakumari to Rajghat, rattling Indira Gandhi. There were no AC ‘raths’ with reclining seats then. Only the heat and dust of eternal India.
Hackneyed political yatras, especially in times of high fuel prices — won’t drive out corruption, nor bring about development. Our politicians have run out of ideas, but haven’t run out of petrol. Unless they get off their comfortable chariots, the people will tell them to take a walk.
Ravi@newindianexpress.com