NEW DELHI, Nov. 7 -- When Congress MP Rahul Gandhi announced his decision to go on his Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, many saw it as just bravado. Some claimed that he would chicken out after he trekked a few hundred kilometres. Some others thought that he would find an excuse to terminate his Yatra before it reached anywhere near Mumbai, forget Srinagar, his ultimate destination.

The most distressed were the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who did not know how to respond to his Yatra. When the Yatra entered Kerala from Tamil Nadu, the CPM unleashed the propaganda that he spent more time in Kerala than in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. They forgot for a while that Kerala was much more length-wise than width...