Picture constructing is a politically vital software for present-day politicians worldwide, and India isn’t any exception. They make use of specialised image-building corporations, who inform their purchasers what to put on, the best way to communicate and what points must be centered on at appreciable prices to seize energy.
Prior to now decade, many leaders have engaged these corporations to construct their public persona. They embody Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Akhilesh Yadav (U.P).(M.Okay.Stalin (Tamil Nadu,) Mamata Banerjee ( West Bengal), and Okay. Chandrashekhar Rao (Telangana).
Political Yantras aren’t new because the days of Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi yatra in 1930. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s current’ Bharat Jodo’ Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmiri is one such appreciable mass contact programe on the traces of Dandi March.. Others like N.T. Rama Rao and L.Okay. Advani had undertaken related yatras on ‘raths’ or buses. Some others, like Vinobha Bhave, Janata Social gathering president Chandrashekhar (1983), and Andhra Pradesh Congress chief YS Rajasekhara Reddy (2004), adopted this route.
Since 2004 when Rahul Gandhi entered politics as the primary time Member of Parliament and Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014, he has been making an attempt out totally different pictures for himself. Rahul is now trying to painting a brand new persona. He desires to problem and ‘rescue‘ the nation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, donning the position of a person of the plenty and a grassroots chief – a frontrunner for ladies and youth.
First, Rahul claimed to be within the studying course of all through the Congress-led UPA rule (2004-2014). He tinkered with the Youth Congress however failed. Then he projected himself as an indignant younger man, stressed to alter the system and afterward a reformer with new concepts of democracy. After the occasion’s depressing defeat within the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls and dropping 45 state meeting elections, Rahul resigned because the occasion chief in August 2019. And since then, he has been working by means of distant management.
Rahul is trying a last-ditch effort with this Bharat Jodo Yatra to attach with the sections which have moved to different events. Congress has been out of energy since 2014.. The subsequent Lok Sabha polls are scheduled in March/April 2024. The Congress staff and the supporting plenty might be demoralized. If the Congress loses for the third time.
The present marketing campaign will present him with a platform to enhance his picture. The mass contact programme is a big present within the publish -Impartial India, with a large contingent of Congress members, together with occasion MPs, collaborating, protecting 3,500 kilometres by means of twelve states and two Union Territories within the subsequent 150 days starting September 7. Over 200 civil society organizations additionally help the transfer. The slogan for the Yatra is “mile kadam, jude vatan” (stroll collectively, unite the nation).
In the course of the 150 days of the Yatra, Rahul Gandhi will stay an excellent listener. “This can be a public, open, clear train,” says occasion spokesman Jairam Ramesh. Rahul has little to point out what he has carried out to this point. However, the BJP desires to depict Rahul as intellectually insufficient, emotionally unstable, organisationally inept, and an alleged cash launderer.
This Yatra is essentially the most protracted marketing campaign in Rahul’s practically two-decade political profession. He has cycled to Parliament to protest in opposition to excessive gas costs. Rahul’s strategists have launched photos of his bodybuilding workouts, his culinary expertise and swimming with the fisherman.
The query is whether or not Rahul can convert the crowds into voters and likewise simply bodily contact with the plenty could be of how a lot assist in the digital age. Rahul claims he might be a substitute for the “politics of concern, bigotry and prejudice” and the “economics of livelihood destruction, rising unemployment and rising inequalities”. He aspires that the Yatra was like a Tapasya for him and that he was prepared for the “lengthy battle” to unite the nation.
Nonetheless, there are lots of ifs and buts on this gamble. Will Rahul be capable of undergo this ordeal with out taking a vacation break? Secondly, sustaining the general public curiosity for 5 lengthy months is tough. Rahul has to search out one thing new to maintain himself and Congress within the information. He is not going to even be capable of give up midway with out dropping face. Thirdly, the momentum must be sustained till the 2024 polls. It’s a difficult work for Rahul forward. Fourthly, he can benefit from the success of the Yatra provided that he leads from the entrance.
Eyeing the occasion’s revival forward of the 2024 elections, the occasion chief Sonia Gandhi described the march as a “landmark event”. She hoped that the march would assist rejuvenate the grand outdated occasion.
The Yatra may very well be a “transformational second” for Indian politics and a “decisive second” for the occasion’s rejuvenation. Rahul and the occasion mustn’t miss this chance. He must impress the general public that he’s a ‘doer’. Mass contact programmes typically assist politicians. (IPA Service)
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