Rahul Gandhi, the perennial Congress candidate for the post of Prime Minister, notwithstanding numerous electoral defeats, seems to have taken a leaf out of his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan’s playbook for his upcoming ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ commencing today. Gandhi is going to live in containers for the 150 days of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ just like Khan spent his agitation days in containers back in 2014.
Khan, who pioneered living in containers to garner public sympathy and chart his way to the office of Pakistan Prime Minister, appears to be the source of inspiration to Rahul Gandhi whose party possibly believes ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is a momentous political movement that would revive his dying political fortunes.
For the next 150 days, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will sleep in a container during the 3,750 km journey from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, touted among Congress loyalists and sympathisers circles as a ‘masterstroke’ to take on the Modi juggernaut in the 2024 general elections.
As the inordinately long journey commences, pertinent questions about lodging and accommodation of senior political leaders participating in the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ have surfaced. However, the party has clarified that the Gandhi scion will not stay in any hotel and complete the entire journey living in a container.
As per reports, Rahul Gandhi would call the containers his abode for the next 150 days. Sleeping beds, toilets, air-conditioners, and other ‘basic facilities have been installed in containers to assist the leaders participating in the Yatra. About 60 such containers have been prepared and sent to a village in Kanyakumari, where a temporary village is set up where all the containers are housed. The container will be placed in a new position every day in the shape of a village for night rest.
Before coming to power in Pakistan, Khan had indulged in similar theatrics, projecting himself as the people’s leader, mobilising mass agitations against the incumbent government, and pitching himself as the panacea that the country direly needs to remedy its chronic problems. Khan had pioneered using containers to advance his brand of intimidatory politics, travelling across the country and whipping up a groundswell of criticism against the government of the day.
On top of the Container with my ppl as tear gas fired directly at us. Cowardly action by govt. pic.twitter.com/h8fpMmqkOS
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 30, 2014
Back in 2014, when Imran Khan was one of the many candidates eyeing the coveted seat of Pakistan Prime Minister, the former cricketer turned politician launched a massive agitation called ‘Freedom March‘ to stamp his authority and project himself as one of the strongest contenders to challenge the incumbent Nawaz Sharif government. The march, which witnessed PTI activists and supporters advancing toward the capital Islamabad, saw containers used by the leaders while they were on the roads leading a campaign against the government. Pictures of Imran Khan sleeping on a container had also gone viral on the internet.
Years later, Rahul Gandhi will be following in the footsteps of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as he embarks on the 150-day long ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’. The Wayanad MP, who keeps hightailing it to Italy and other vacation spots every once in a while, will sleep, pee, poop, and live in containers as the March snakes through different parts of India.
