Sonia recalls panic when Rahul’s security ‘disappeared’ during Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kashmir

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has recalled moments of panic during the Kashmir leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in January 2023, when her son Rahul Gandhi’s security personnel allegedly disappeared as a large crowd gathered around him, forcing a day's halt to the march.

In her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, Gandhi writes that her concern turned into panic when she saw a massive crowd closing in around Rahul without any visible security presence.

“My nagging worry turned into panic seeing that in the massive crowd closing in around Rahul there was no sign of his security; for reasons best known to themselves, they had just disappeared,” she writes.

Recalling her attempts to intervene, she says: “Frantic, I rang up everyone I could. The Kashmir Yatra was held up for a day till security arrangements were restored.”

The march resumed after security arrangements were put back in place and culminated in Srinagar amid severe weather conditions.

“Rahul, along with Kashmiri leaders Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti and Priyanka by his side, walked into swirling snowfall for the finale of the Bharat Jodo Yatra,” she writes.

Reflecting on Rahul’s safe return, Sonia Gandhi says she found it difficult to describe her relief and admiration for his determination.

“I find it difficult to express what I felt when he finally came back home; relief at having him return safely, amazement at the way he had held on to his resolve. I was proud of him,” she writes.

She adds that although Rahul appeared physically exhausted after the cross-country march, “there was a light in his face I hadn't seen for a long time”.

Sonia Gandhi also describes the Bharat Jodo Yatra as an important step towards building opposition unity against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

She calls the march the “first important step towards stitching together the alliance that would confront the BJP's National Democratic Alliance”.

According to her, the yatra primarily sought to promote public harmony through a message that challenged the political rhetoric of the ruling party.

“Most important of all, from the people's point of view, he was the carrier of a message of unity and concord summed up in a slogan that came to be on everyone's lips, the antithesis of what the BJP represented — 'Nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukan kholo' (In the marketplace of hatred, open the store of love),” she writes