by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
special report
Why Rahul Gandhi rubbed Sena and Many ?
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Dec. 15
Rahul Gandhi may have baffled Congressmen including his mother & Congress Interim president Sonia Gandhi when he rubbed key party ally Shiv Sena on the wrong side by invoking Vir Savarkar.
But he was fully aware of what he was doing at the mammoth rally at the Ramlila Grounds on Saturday when he said “My name is not Rahul Savarkar. My Name is Rahul Gandhi and I will not apologise”. Obviously, he was telling the saffron parties that Savarkar had apologized to the British. But he was not the one to do so.
Insiders say that Rahul Gandhi deliberately invoked Savarkar’s name to rub the Shiv Sena on the wrong side. While the “Bharat Bachao Rally” was aimed at targeting the BJP and NDA, Rahul deviated from the script and provoked the Sena. Sources close to Rahul Gandhi told Lokmat that the scion of the Gandhi family was never in favour of the Congress-NCP-Sena alliance . Yet, due to political compulsions Sonia Gandhi gave the go-ahead to the alliance. But Rahul was never happy about it and he went public the moment he got an opportunity to pass the snide remark. It’s a different matter that Sonia Gandhi who spoke after him went according to the script and ignored his remarks. It also transpires that immediately after the public rally, she got in touch with senior party leader Ahmad Patel to handle the situation. It was these behind-the-scenes activity that Sena’s Sanjay Raut’s tweet was guarded and the matter subsided. But it clearly emerged that Rahul Gandhi’s remarks were well thought of and not a spur-of-the-moment statement.
Sources say that several of the Congress stalwarts including Chief Ministers were also unhappy that Instead of appreciating them, Rahul Gandhi chose to congratulate party general secretary Mukul Wasnik for mobilizing a massive crowd at the rally. He called out Wasnik and patted his back for the successful rally in front of thousands present. Rahul Gandhi did not name a single party leader for mobilizing such a mammoth crowd. The Chief Ministers - Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh) and Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda worked for weeks to bring crowds from their respective states.
On the contrary, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi congratulated her workers from UP who had come in large numbers and they cheered repeatedly when she spoke.
Ends
