AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s “main man” in Punjab is quietly forging a revolution of sorts by employing an almost forgotten means of reaching out to his constituents — simply walking the length and breadth of the border state.
Ravneet Singh Bittu, the youngest Punjabi MP, who was elected state Youth Congress chief in the country’s first-ever professionally-monitored organisational election last December, has already walked an unbelievable 800 km of a 1600-km-long trek that is taking him across the dusty villages of the Malwa, Majha and Doaba regions.
And as he relentlessly presses on to resurrect the jawaani (youth) and kisaani (farmers) with the unprecedented Nav Inquilab Yatra, Bittu and his 45 dedicated PYC volunteers are more convinced than ever that the only worthwhile way into people’s hearts is to go out there — in their midst.
“I could also have raced across the state in an imported `55-lakh SUV like some others,” he said, in an evident allusion to Akali rebel Manpreet Badal’s much-hyped Punjab Jagao Yatra. “But that would have immediately distanced us from the very sections we are seeking out.”
The villagers’ response to the hiking youngsters is more than evident. At Bandala, on the Tarn Taran-Amritsar district boundary, the oldest and the poorest residents, who would usually never be able to elbow they way to meet an MP surrounded by cronies, seem overcome when Bittu touches each of their feet. “Did you know he’s (late Punjab chief minister) Beant Singh’s grandson and an MP now? I wish our own boys were more like him,” says an ageing grandmother only too generous with her blessings.
Scores of villagers hand in arzees (applications) of matters that trouble them. The PYC chief and his comrades say they have already accumulated thousands ranging from complaints about family disputes, non-existent electricity, harassment by the police to allegations against local politicians involved in trading illicit liquor and narcotics.
“We have been receiving a steady flow of critical feedback about not just the Akali-BJP government’s many failures, but also the conduct of local Congress leaders who are aspirants for party tickets in the 2012 Assembly elections,” Bittu said. “All such information will be included in a report for Mr Rahul Gandhi once the yatra is complete on December 12.”
So besides reaching village folk, the march has also put Punjab’s Congressmen on their toes a full year ahead of what promises to be a stiff contest for the state Assembly. No less than eight ticket aspirants have launched their own foot-marches covering a minimum of five constituency villages each day.
For young Ravneet Singh Bittu, the trek across Punjab has quite literally opened his eyes to what his late grandfather sacrificed his very life to save. Chief minister Beant Singh was among a handful of politicians who stood their ground against Khalistani terrorism in the 1980s and early ’90s. He was assassinated by a suicide bomber in August 1995 and that singular fact is more than enough inspiration for his youngest grandson. Of course, the fact that Bittu has the trust of Mr Rahul Gandhi helps immensely.