Rahul's aam aadmi avatar: Janata class travel to Punjab is just another PR stunt

Whatever Rahul Gandhi does appear contrived. It is hard to think otherewise. Take for instance his travel by train to Punjab to see “with my own eyes” — his speechwriters, I suppose, prepare his television bytes too — in a non-air-conditioned coach. We do not know yet if the coach was sanitised by ridding it of other passengers or it was a coach set aside for him and others allowed in only for photo-ops. But the planners of this, whoever they are, even had him speaking to the media at the New Delhi station from the window of the coach, as The Indian Express informs us. They calculated the telling image – a leader scruffy with a beard, among the hoi polloi. Perhaps to evoke memories of the image of another Gandhi, the Mahatma is travelling third class to know the nation. Gopal Krishna Gokhale had advised the lawyer who had returned from South Africa to do so. It was to get a man who was of the masses but away from homeland to get to know the situation well.  Those days, there were no PR advisors, nor any photo-opportunities as means of conveying a political message. What a man did, and not so much what he said, mattered then, unlike now. So contrast this to the image of a Rahul Gandhi who was flown from Dehradoon to Gaurikund by a helicopter so he could commence his 16-km treck to Kedarnath. He did the first ten km on day one, and the rest the next day. Indian media is not proactive enough to position its journalists in some remote place as Gaurikund; even in disasters, they steal flights on choppers that could have carried relief instead. Therefore, this ordinary train travel comes as a false image, of gimmickry, much like his use of a commuter train in Mumbai once, and later, by Arvind Kejriwal. Probably the likes of them can only associate with, but not be, one of the commoners. [caption id=“attachment_2218264” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Throw your minds back to Rahul’s meetings with the rickshaw-pullers of Varanasi. It was an attempt to show him amidst them as against speaking to them from a platform. Being election time, and competing against the campaign behemoth of Narendra Modi, he had to adopt some countervailing option. He did it with perfection – multiple cameras placed in several angles, all moves apparently orchestrated. It was like a big travelling studio, which we saw when he met Mumbai’s fishermen. All to an effect. Desired, yes, but nevertheless a massive PR effort which would not have been needed if he were aware of the ground realities. Such awareness does not come from such passing interface but being rooted in the soil. Many a successful leaders who came up from the masses remained with them even as they grew in stature in politics and stayed there but never lost the connect. Yashwantrao Chavan, Sharad Pawar, Babubhai Patel, Jalagam Vengala Rao, Vijaybhaskar Reddy knew at least half a dozen people from each village of their state which kept them in link with the ground. Perhaps Rahul may know the names of the key people in his party, and a few of the commandos from the National Security Guard who protect him, but otherwise, he lives in a capsule of his own making, bursting out of it to make a point. So far, he has returned to the capsule quicker than you could say Jack Robinson. This time, with his one-day Punjab contact, and the planned journeys from Vidarbha tomorrow, one assumes he has taken a break from the reclusiveness. This, however, is only a guess. His long leave of absence, even when his claimed pet issue, the land acquisition bill, was being debated, remains unexplained except perhaps some mixed fallouts. One, he was at the centre of a public debate – “Where is the next leader?”, though it was a question asked derisively asked. Two, when he re-emerged, he got back to the centre stage, the younger lot, mostly dynasts themselves surrounding him, glowed, and those who wanted the mother to remain the Congress chief, went into a sulk, at least for now. He may have needed the introspection for which he lit out of town, and he may even have, and if he did, we did not see much of its benefit in what he has said and done so far from his speech in the Lok Sabha. But it was, my suspicion is, to take him out of the scene, hide him in some mystery, and then suddenly spring him on to the unsuspecting public. It was also contrived, and did not much good. But then, if not substance but spin is going to be his style, so be it. It is hard to contrive an approbation for his way.