I believe in ‘tapasya’; want to share people’s suffering while walking: Rahul Gandhi

PTI, Oct 8, 2022, 7:07 PM IST

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said he believes in ”tapasya” and wants to talk to people on the ground and share their suffering while walking in the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

At the end of the 31-day period of the yatra that started from Kanyakumari on September 7, he said it has been a wonderful and learning experience so far.

”I believe in tapasya, have always been. That is my nature and that has been my family’s nature. I wanted an element of suffering for myself. I didn’t want the communication with people to be easy. So I thought what would be something that would make me suffer, so that while I talk to my people I can share in their suffering,” he said.

”I find that a little bit and that was the idea. I find that to be a very powerful experience. When you are walking on the road and you are speaking to your people after having suffered a little bit the communication is better,” Gandhi said while sharing his experience so far during the yatra.

He said after 31 days, even though it has not really begun but he can see already the advantage of this kind of communication. This is the most beautiful and powerful for me, he said.

The former Congress chief, however, said there is quite a lot of dishonesty in this as when he speaks in the cameras, behind those cameras there are interests and they distort the communication.

That conversation cannot be distorted when I am talking to people, he said.

”They speak more clearly because they say he is walking on the road and you listen to them more Carefully because you understand much better the discussion,” Gandhi noted.

”For me it has been a learning experience. Frankly, it hasn’t even begun yet,” he felt.

In a tweet with a hashtag #1MonthOfBharatJodoYatra, he wrote, ”I am by nature a believer in Tapasya. Bharat Jodo Yatra is a powerful experience in sharing the suffering of our people and also learning from their tremendous wisdom.” Gandhi also claimed that crores of media money have been spent ”in trying to shape me in a way which is untruthful and wrong. That machine is financially backed. People who care to look carefully will see what I stand for and what my truth is.” Sharing his experience, he said in the political system he sees a distance that has developed between the political class and our citizens. The idea of Bharat Jodo Yatra was to go on the roads and meet our people, he asserted.

On who will be the face of the Congress party in Karnataka, Gandhi said, ”We have brilliant leaders in Karnataka and once we win the elections, the chief ministerial face will be decided through a process that is carried out in the Congress party.” Gandhi said the objective behind the yatra is to bring India together. ”The objective from my perspective is not 2024 election,c he said, adding that the country is being divided and violence ia being spread and thus is damaging the country.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra is aimed at raising three fundamental issues — violence, hatred that BJP, RSS is spreading and massive concentration of wealth that is being allowed and that is resulting in a collapse, Gandhi noted.

”India is heading towards an unemployment disaster,” he asserted.

”I stand and have always stood for certain ideas that disturbs the BJP, the RSS and other forces,” he said.