In an attempt to outdo the Cockroach Janta Party, seen as an upstart in the political arena, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra led a march to Nirvachan Sadan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. As they were stopped before reaching the traffic circle near Nirvachan Sadan, they barged into the Akashvani complex and held an impromptu Dharna in the courtyard of the high-security building.
Bingo! Senior journalists and political pundits declared that this could be the Belchhi moment for the Gandhi siblings whose attempts at dislodging the Narendra Modi government had yielded little result so far. They argued that Rahul had finally learnt the art of capturing media space with his imaginative and bold protests.
All this sounds perfect except that there have been at least half a dozen occasions in the past twelve years when both Rahul and Priyanka (Priyanka more than Rahul) have been credited with having ‘found’ the Belchhi moment. But that moment continues to remain elusive.
For those on the younger side, here is what happened in Belchhi. It was August 1977. Indira Gandhi was at the lowest point in her political career after a crushing defeat at the hands of the Janata Party.
The Congress had practically been wiped out north of the Vindhyas. A brutal caste massacre was reported from Belchhi, a small, nondescript village in Bihar. Thirteen persons had been killed, most of them Dalits.
Suddenly, Indira Gandhi declared that she would be travelling to Belchhi to meet the survivors and family members of the victims. It was peak monsoon, and the way to Belchhi was full of slush. Finally, when the tractor she was riding in could not move ahead, Indira rode an elephant to reach the village.
Of course, she did not come back to power for another three years, but the Belchhi moment with Indira Gandhi atop an elephant to meet those suffering in a back-of-beyond village registered as an iconic moment in her path to political resurrection.
In 2014, the Congress-led UPA lost power at the hands of Narendra Modi, with the Congress party registering a much lower tally than even in 1977. Since then, every time the Gandhi siblings come out on the streets, political pundits cry ‘Belchhi’. For instance, Priyanka Gandhi visited Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh in 2019. Eleven tribal farmers had been killed by a local strongman. Digvijay Singh immediately termed it the Belchhi moment for Priyanka by drawing parallels between the two killings.
In 2021, when Priyanka Vadra attended a prayer meeting for the farmers killed in Lakhimpur Kheri, it was again billed as the Belchhi moment, with many UP-based commentators writing long pieces on it. A celebrated news anchor held an entire show discussing whether the Belchhi moment had finally arrived.
There is more. When Rahul and Priyanka wanted to march to Hathras following the road and murder of a Dalit girl, they were stopped near NOIDA, citing COVID-related restrictions. One more Belchhi moment was discussed.
Significantly, the Congress won two seats out of 403 in the 2022 elections with an abysmal two per cent vote share.
In the interregnum, there were half a dozen small and big occasions which were labelled as the Belchhi moment by various people. Coming back to the Akashvani Dharna, it was preceded by Rahul Gandhi standing atop a police barricade in a defiant posture. There had been several protests earlier where Rahul led the party and the opposition against the Modi govt, but that picture was analysed by many as a competitive move following the CJP’s protest on the same issue of SIR.
Currently, the Congress is preparing for another show of strength. It has announced a rally at the Ramlila Ground on November 1. Senior opposition leaders are likely to attend the same.
Traders’ associations have written repeatedly to the party requesting to postpone the event as it falls at the peak of the Diwali-Dhanteras shopping season. So far, the Congress has chosen to ignore them.
Regardless of the date, the Ramlila Ground rally would quite possibly again be labelled as another ‘beginning of the end’ for the Modi govt. But going by the mood on the streets beyond a few kilometres of Lutyens’ Zone, the never-ending wait for that Belchhi is unlikely to end anytime soon.
Smita Mishra is a policy analyst. She writes on security, politics and current issues; Views presented are personal.