Bharat Jodo Yatra: Rahul struggles to win over Panth’s sympathy

Punjab Congress leadership is upbeat over Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Amritsar ahead of the beginning of the Punjab leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra but the same has given much-needed ammunition to the opposition political parties especially the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) to censure the Congress leaders for continuously rubbing the salt on wounds of Sikhs.

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday surprised everyone with his sudden visit to Amritsar when he went to Sri Harmandir Sahib ( the Golden Temple) supporting a saffron turban and his signature style white t-shirt.  Standing in a queue, he not only went inside the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Harmandir Sahib and paid obeisance but listened to kirtan sitting behind the Ragi’s and was also photographed.  

The look and the timing of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Golden Temple attracted media attention though he was ‘ignored’ by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee which neither welcomed him nor provided security for its task force.

Political pundits are of the view that Congress leadership is out on roads not to ‘unite’ India but to further their own political interest and to prevent the grand old party from sinking which has already been deserted by various prominent Congress leaders in Punjab.

To name a few prominent erstwhile Congress leaders from Punjab who joined other political parties are former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Sunil Jakhar, former ministers  Raj Kumar Verka , Balbir Singh Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Amritsar Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu, etc.

As expected, the SAD fumed over Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Golden Temple. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, wife of party president Sukhbir Singh Badal and former union minister even quipped at the   Congress leaders for welcoming Rahul Gandhi alleging that the Gandhi family had betrayed the Sikhs and Punjab and the Gandhi family never apologized even.

Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Golden Temple may have given an opportunity to the Congress party to momentarily bask in the applause of a section of the Sikh community but the opposition Sikh leadership especially Akali’s and BJP are of the view that the wounds allegedly inflicted by the Congress leadership in past wouldn’t be healed with such gestures.

Questions are also being asked as to why the Congress think tanks and strategists didn’t include Amritsar in Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab even as he began the Punjab leg on Wednesday from Sirhind after paying obeisance at Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib and would address a rally at Pathankot on January 19.

Rahul is also seeking the Congress leader's opinion in every state he is passing during Bharat Jodo Yatra on how to take forward the Gandhi family’s legacy and bring it back to power under the present circumstances and Punjab is one of the significant states where the party had good presence but also lost a good number of leaders.

Though Rahul has emerged as an idealistic face of the party which groomed him all through these years yet it is not going to be an easy task but an enduring strain for him.