Politics
No Surprises Here: Meet The 'Eminent Citizens' And Activists Supporting Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'
- Curiously, while the Congress party is reaching out to activists and 'public intellectuals', its Yatra is set to give a miss to two states going to polls later in the year—Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Scheduled to begin on 7 September, the Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is planned to pass through 12 states and cover a distance of 3,500 kms.
At a meeting held at the Constitution Club of India in Delhi on August 22, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi hailed the upcoming 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' of the party as "a spiritual journey".
What stood out, however, at the event was the list of attendees. The meeting was attended by 'intellectuals', writers, social activists and civil society organisations.
A cursory glance at the attendees and their past activities reveals that most of them shared the worldview that drove the anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh and the 'farmers'' movement at NCR borders, among other similar projects.
Here is a look at the past activities of the prominent attendees/supporters of the Bharat Jodo Yatra meeting, most of whom fit the definition of 'Andolanjeevis'.
1. Yogendra Yadav - After rising to prominence as a psephologist on TV channels, Yadav joined the India Against Corruption movement and the newly-formed Aam Aadmi Party before being unceremoniously ousted from the outfit.
Since then, he has latched on to protests, dharnas, etc. He came out in support of those who were arrested in the Elgar Parishad Maoist Link Case. This was a case where a "serious conspiracy" was hatched, which included plans to assassinate Prime Minister Modi.
Yadav termed those incarcerated as 'dissenters' who have been silenced by the Modi government. He was also a part of the organising committee of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha - the farmers' protest which opposed three long-pending reforms in the country.
As per INC MP Ravneet Bittu, Yogendra Yadav incited the farmers' riots of 26th January 2021.
2. Justice (retd.) B G Kolse Patil: After retiring from the Bombay High Court, Patil joined the Janata Dal (Secular). In 2021, he was elected as the chairman of the Movement Against UAPA And Other Repressive Laws (MURL).
Speaking at an event organised by Popular Front of India in 2016, he called the RSS "the biggest enemy of India". He added ‘Hindutva is nothing but deluding name of Brahmanism and the real enemy of India are Brahmanism and Capitalism’.
As one of the main organisers of the Elgar Parishad, Patil invited Umar Khalid (now jailed in the Delhi riots case) and let Khalid stay at his residence, Khalid said in a statement in 2021. The 2017 event later led to the Bhima Koregaon violence.
In January 2020, speaking at an event organised by the Jamat Islamic Hind, he was accused of spreading misinformation to incite Muslims. He said “We have started a movement. You (Muslims) should take the initiative now. You are 20-25 crores in population and once you hit the streets, the entire country will be shaken”.
In April 2020, a video surfaced where he was seen hurling abuses at the Prime Minister for economic woes and the Gujarat riots.
In an interview given to India development review in early 2022, she said "we see an increasing slew of attacks against religious minorities, Dalits, and other marginalised communities. Civil society, which speaks out against oppression and amplifies the voices of the marginalised, is also under attack. Violence, instead of discussion and debate, has become a common response for settling disagreements. But what makes all this worse is the state’s covert and overt support for perpetrators of violence".
She was a signatory to a letter demanding release of Teesta Setalvad, who was taken into custody by the Gujarat government after critical observations were made by the Supreme Court on her role in the investigations into the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
She was also party to resolutions blaming EVMs for electoral losses of the opposition.
4. Syeda Hameed: A former member of the Planning Commission and the National Commission for Women, Hameed was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007.
Her dislike of the current dispensation isn't unknown. She had criticised the Modi government for lynching instances.
Her support for Islamist causes was seen when she supported the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protests against the CAA.
Blaming institutions for electoral outcomes, she was part of a 'people’s tribunal' on the ‘judicial assault on civil liberties’ on August 6 this year. In light of concerns surrounding the Supreme Court’s recent orders in a number of cases – in particular, Zakia Jafri’s plea challenging the clean chit given to Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots case, she said that institutions had been captured.
Hameeda was a speaker at a press conference in September 2021 by Citizens’ Collective to mark one year of Umar Khalid’s incarceration under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in the Delhi riots conspiracy case.
5. Devanoora Mahadeva: He returned his Sahitya Akademi and Padmashri awards in 2015 against the alleged violation of freedom of expression, tolerance and social justice under the Modi government.
Devanoora is the author of ‘RSS: Aala Mattu Agala’ (‘The Depth and Breadth of RSS’)... where he linked Golwalkar, Savarkar and Hegdewar with the caste system and said that the RSS was opposed to the Constitution and federalism.
Other supporters of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' include 'activists' like P V Rajagopal and Ganesh Devy (supported Islamists during the Karnataka hijab controversy in 2022).
Curiously, while the Congress party is reaching out to such activists and 'public intellectuals', its Yatra is set to give a miss to two states which are going to polls later in the year—Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
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