Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul’s Nuh speech enthuses while it lasts; what he doesn’t say sticks

The Bharat Jodo Yatra’s journey across Haryana’s Nuh, ranked by the NITI Aayog in 2018 as India’s “most backward district”, was a tough balancing act for Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

On the one hand was the reality of Nuh’s backwardness – poor access to potable water, bad roads, lack of education and health infrastructure, joblessness, et al – and on the other were claims by former two-term chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who rattled out all the “developmental work” done for Mewat, as Nuh was called until 2016, when the Congress ruled the state and at the Centre for a decade before 2014.

The yatra had halted in Nuh’s Ghasera village to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. The Mahatma had visited Ghasera on December 19, 1947, and exhorted Mewat’s Muslims, the Meos, to not leave India despite pressures on the ethnic minority by Hindu hardliners to go to Pakistan in wake of the Partition. The Meos, who trace a shared ancestry with Mewat’s Hindus and today constitute nearly 80 per cent of Nuh’s population, had heeded Gandhi’s words but in the 75 years that have passed since, they have remained on the margins of India’s growth story.

Thousands of Mewatis had gathered in Ghasera on Thursday for Rahul’s public meeting. But before he took the mic, there were two other speakers – Yogendra Yadav, psephologist-turned-activist-turned-aspiring politician and face of the civil society representation in the BJY, and Bhupinder Hooda.

Also read: Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul’s harmony message steers clear of the ‘M’ word

Yadav and Hooda, two facets

Both Yadav and Hooda recalled the Mahatma’s ‘historic’ visit to Ghasera, both drew parallels between the communal disharmony that had swept the region in 1947 and has resurfaced now under BJP rule and both stressed on the need for Mewat’s progress. Where the two differed though was in their individual assessment of the development Mewat had – or hadn’t – witnessed before Narendra Modi swept to power at the Centre in 2014 and helped the BJP score its first majority government in Haryana later that year.

Yadav, perhaps still ill at ease with his new found alignment with the Congress – a party he had wished death upon after the 2019 Lok Sabha poll results, let the guard slip on his political correctness. “This land has always paid the price for its rebellion. It was punished by the Mughals, by the British and today, even 75 years after independence, it continues to be punished. This area didn’t get rail connectivity, it didn’t get a canal or even a central school or a university,” Yadav declared, as he urged the people to rise up against the “atmosphere of hate” being spread by the BJP.

Yadav clearly forgot that for much of this period, it was the Congress that had ruled both, at the Centre and in Haryana. The assembly segments that fall in Nuh district – Punahana, Nuh and Ferozepur Jhirka – too had alternated between Congress, Indian National Lok Dal and Independent MLAs for most part, with the BJP never winning these seats. Most importantly, Yadav seemed to pay no mind to the fact that Hooda, who was to speak after him, had led the Congress government in the state from 2004 to 2014 and had always been boastful about the strides that Mewat had made towards development under his regime.

Unsurprisingly, when Hooda got up to speak, he had a full list of “development works” that were carried out in Mewat during Congress rule. “Yogendra Yadav spoke about (lack of) development. This area didn’t have access to potable water but it was during the time of the UPA government that Sonia Gandhi came here and launched a scheme (the Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Supply Augmentation Project) that has now become the lifeline of Mewat,” Hooda said.

“You (Yadav) talked about education. The Mewat Engineering College was opened here and this village was declared a model village. A Women’s College was opened in Salaheri (village in Nuh). We gave Nuh a Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya, model schools under the Aarohi scheme and also a medical college. We opened a satellite campus of the Maulana Azad Urdu University here. Many of these works were later stalled by the BJP,” he added.

For good measure, Hooda also declared that when he was CM, Sonia Gandhi would often “personally enquire about our Mewat” during her meetings with him and that “Nuh has a historical association with the Nehru-Gandhi family” as it was on Jawaharlal Nehru’s urging that Mahatma Gandhi had visited Ghasera in that December of 1947.

Rahul points out the problems

Rahul, who spoke after Hooda, had his task cut out. Between early Wednesday morning, when the BJY entered Nuh from Rajasthan’s Alwar and the event at Ghasera on Thursday afternoon, Rahul had practically walked the entire length of the evidently backward district. Congress communications department chief and Rahul’s co-traveller in the yatra, Jairam Ramesh had already waxed eloquent about the lack of civic infrastructure in Nuh and had complained bitterly about the district’s potholed roads.

“I do not want to dwell on what (development) happened in the past and what didn’t because there may be different opinions on it. Yogendra Yadav said nothing happened, Bhupinder Hooda said work was done. I have no interest in what happened in the past but I can tell you today after walking on these roads that you are in pain and there are shortcomings,” Rahul told the gathering.

“If you came on these roads in a Mercedes or visited here in a helicopter, you can’t feel this pain… It is only when you walk 100-200 kilometres on these roads, like I, Bhupinder Hooda and Yogendra Yadav have now walked, these realities get etched in your mind and you don’t need any explanations. I could see very clearly – you need good educational institutions, you need hospitals,” Rahul added. Clearly not the vote of confidence Hooda would have hoped for, particularly since minutes earlier he had been explaining to the gathering all that the Congress had done for the education and medical infrastructure of Mewat.

By now, the crowd seemed to have bought the pitch Rahul has often used to describe the purpose of the BJY – to listen to the people’s mann ki baat. One group of youngsters in the audience screamed, “we need drinking water” while another demanded a university as Rahul smiled and repeated the demands. When people yelled against mehangai (rising prices), Rahul replied impishly, “bhaiya, mehangai ke liye toh Modi ji se bolo (for controlling price rise, speak to Modi ji)”.

The people want more

There is little doubt that Rahul’s speech, for the time it lasted, found resonance with the gathering. Yet, once it was over, equally palpable was a lurking sense of disillusionment among many in the crowd – admittedly, mostly Meo or Mewati Muslims from all over Nuh or the neighbouring Palwal – that this reporter spoke to.

“Rahul assured us that if the Congress comes to power, Mewat will see development… Hooda saheb was CM for 10 years and said he did a lot for Mewat but today even Rahul admitted he could not see any development in Mewat,” said Akram Khan, a resident of Nuh’s Sangel village.

Also read: Kanimozhi joins Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana

During his address, Rahul chastised the Centre for growing joblessness and price rise and lashed out at the BJP for spreading hate, muzzling the press and intimidating dissenters. Those The Federal spoke to at the event agreed that these were “important issues” but added that they had hoped Rahul would also address “other issues that concern us (Meo Muslims)”.

“Price rise and joblessness is an issue for everyone but there are also issues that only our community faces. A very large number of people in Mewat were traditionally dairy farmers or cattle herders. In the last few years, Mewat faced the full brunt of Hindutva and gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) and no one from the Congress came to our rescue,” said Ikram Ali of Punahana.

Adil Mian, a shopkeeper from Nuh’s Jaisinghpur village, was visibly livid at what he called Rahul’s “refusal to acknowledge Muslims as victims of communal violence”. When pointed out that Rahul has been talking about communal disharmony, Adil Mian shot back, “who is spreading it and against whom… if you are not spelling this out, then you are saying both sides are doing it equally and if you believe Muslims are being persecuted then why are you scared of saying it.”

“We don’t have a problem with Rahul saying Jai Siya Ram or going to a temple, but if he is fighting for communal harmony, he should at least say Muslims need to be protected,” he added.