‘I want to save democracy’: Why even former critics of the Congress joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra

An excerpt from ‘Roadwalker: A Few Miles of the Bharat Jodo Yatra,’ by Dilip D’Souza.

‘I want to save democracy’: Why even former critics of the Congress joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra

One day on the Karnataka leg of the Yatra, my little group sat down with a group we had been walking with all that morning. This was in the afternoon break between the two sessions of walking. We were sitting in chairs outside two enormous tents. One had dozens of cots on which the yatris were resting. The other had long tables at which people sat to eat a simple lunch, served to them on bright green banana leaves.

Finished with lunch, our new friends were discussing why they had joined the Yatra. Mohan, a squat man with a greying beard, seemed to be working through his reasons right there and then, musing in some wonder: “You know, I’ve been anti-Congress all my life. So why am I here at all?” He stopped to collect his thoughts. “It’s just that now there’s this assault on Indian democracy,” he said.

Several people nodded. Nobody needed Mohan to spell out what he meant. He went on: “So I want to defeat that and save democracy.”

He seemed suddenly aware of the full weight of what he had just said. Then: “It’s much better that we start getting organised a year-and-a-half before the elections, instead of only...

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