Crowds screamed and cheered, hip-hop stars performed, and people gathered on their rooftops to watch a long, winding procession pass by. 

These were some of the scenes on Sunday, November 27, day 81 of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, as it made its way through Indore in Madhya Pradesh. 

The crowds in Indore to welcome the yatra – on the streets and waving from rooftops – comprised a number of Congress workers but also a large number of locals. At the forefront was Rahul Gandhi, meeting with retired army officers, children and sanitation workers, pausing for photos and conversations along the way. 

On the same day, Gandhi addressed a gathering at Indore’s Rajwada. It was slated to start at 6 pm but given the throngs of people flooding the streets, Gandhi’s speech only began after 7 pm. His speech touched on the usual hot-button topics – inflation, unemployment, demonetisation and GST – before he pulled up the media for its role, or lack of it.

Pointing at mediapersons gathered to the left of the stage, Gandhi said, “We ask friends from the press to raise public issues. We say, ‘Raise the issues of the public, talk about unemployment, talk about farmers, talk about labourers.’ And they say, ‘Look at what clothes Aishwarya Rai is wearing.’”

“I am not saying you are bad,” Gandhi continued, “but you have been reined in…Their work is to get rid of important issues from the public…But it is not their fault because control is not in their hands.”

The Congress party has periodically criticised the national media for sidelining their historic yatra which, starting in September, makes its way across 12 states and two union territories, spanning a distance of over 3,500 km on foot. The party has employed a team of around 20-25 people from a company called Teen Bandar to chronicle the yatra, Gandhi in particular, through photos and videos. 

At the event in Rajwada, Newslaundry spotted a couple of national media representatives while the regional media was out in full force. Gandhi was shielded from being approached, though he had plenty to say about the media in his speech. 

And the more he criticised the media, the louder the applause from the crowd. 

On news channels, he said, “If you watch TV at night, it is Modiji on the first channel, Modiji on the second, Modiji on the third, Modiji on the fourth, Modiji on the fifth, Amit Shahji on the sixth.”

Wherever you look, he said, it’s the same faces: Modi or Amit Shah or Yogi Adityanath or Shivraj Singh Chauhan, sometimes Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai. “But you’ll not see a farmer’s face, his torn hands, on the television. The tears of labourers will not be seen on the television.”

Parallely, Congress communications head Jairam Ramesh could be heard asking a journalist, “Why is your coverage only against us?”

Music and ‘Modi, Modi’

Gandhi’s speech at Rajwada lasted approximately 30 minutes. Once he was done, he set off by car with other top leaders for a music concert at Chimanbagh Ground, 500 metres away.

The concert, featuring Mumbai rapper Divine and a DJ, was a novelty for the yatra. There was no charge for entry, so a large number of people turned up to watch alongside Congress bigwigs like Rahul Gandhi, Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh.

Gandhi came on stage at one point and that’s when the concert hit a bum note – a small group could be heard chanting “Modi, Modi”. Someone else shouted “Jai Shri Ram” but Gandhi did not react. 

He did not show the same sangfroid on November 28, when the yatra left Indore for Sanwer. When someone shouted “Modi, Modi” then, Gandhi stopped and asked his security personnel to fetch the sloganeers so he could chat with them. Sadly, the sloganeers ran away. 

This report was first published in Newslaundry Hindi. It was translated to English by Shardool Katyayan.