Una visit perfectly sums up Rahul Gandhi's vacuous politics of symbolism

Even a child knows that you have to keep your eyes closed during meditation. And even a child knows that meditation calms the mind. And only a calm mind can solve complex issues. It is the tragedy of Rahul Gandhi’s life that like Salman Khan, he remains a deeply misunderstood figure but unlike the Bollywood sultan, the Congress vice-president’s fan following is limited to only his party members. When Rahul was busy solving India’s complex problems sitting inside the Parliament House, critics and mischievous media created a furore, saying that he was sleeping. Be that as it may, now that the Congress vice-president has got up from his vipassana and rushed to Una in Gujarat where Dalits are up in arms against the ruling BJP, critics are issuing cynical tweets.

One feels a little sad for the Gandhi scion. Like a ’true leader’, he comes down from ivory tower every now and then and rushes to the ‘aid’ of people in distress but cynical critics and political rivals accuse him of ‘disaster tourism’ and call him a ‘photo-op’ specialist. On Thursday, for instance, the Congress vice-president flew to Una in Gujarat where Dalit community members involved in leather trade were publicly and brutally flogged by ‘gau suraksha samiti’ (cow protection unit) members for skinning a dead animal. The video has since gone viral and triggered statewide protests among the Dalit community leading to a near-total bandh on Wednesday. A head constable was killed during stone-pelting in Amreli while 20 youths have tried to commit suicide. Vehicles have been vandalized, highway blocked, shops forcibly shut down and violent clashes with police have erupted leading to over 200 arrests. [caption id=“attachment_2673466” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. PTI[/caption] Amid this cauldron, the Congress vice-president, who was famously ‘meditating’ during the Parliament debate over Dalit atrocities on Wednesday, dropped in and had tea with the family members of those who were beaten up. “He asked questions about issues and discrimination being faced by us in our village. We told them that still the practice of untouchability is prevalent here as we are made to stand away from others,” Jitu Sarvvaiya, a cousin of the victims who is studying engineering at a college in Bhavnagar district, told reporters. “Rahulji said he feels ashamed that such incidents are still taking place in the country and gave his personal number to us to contact in case of any emergency,”  Jitu said . It’s a stunning show of humility that the scion of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty descended on earth and was kind enough to be tutored about India’s caste system and the deep social injustice that Dalits face. It was indeed a touching gesture from Rahul’s part to give the victims his ‘personal number’. Problem is, critics are not getting impressed. They are pointing out that Rahul has this habit of not following up on promises. In 2009, for instance, Rahul suddenly paid a visit to the thatched house of one 74-year-old A Rajammal in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchy, drank a glass of water and promised to fulfill her long-term dream of patta for the house she had been residing for several decades. Six years since that visit, the widow is still waiting. Cynical critics are also alleging that Rahul’s Dalit outreach is selective. They allege that when Jisha was found raped and brutally murdered, Rahul didn’t find time to visit Kerala where his party was in power. The Dalit law student at the Government Law College, Ernakulam, was raped, killed and her mutilated body was found near her home in Perumbavoor, where she lived with her mother. It prompted BJP to take a dig at the Congress vice-president. “Why Rahul Gandhi has not visited Kerala? He could visit Hyderabad two times after the unfortunate suicide of Rohit Vemula in Hyderabad University,” senior BJP leader and Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu had said during an election rally in Kerala . The state was then ruled by Congress-led UDF. But even if Rahul sometimes forgets to visit certain places, what about the places he visits? Here, too, skeptical political rivals accuse him of lack of political maturity. When Rahul had rushed to the aid of JNU students, for instance, he came under attack from Arun Jaitley. The Union finance minister during a Rajya Sabha speech suggested Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the campus in the aftermath of the controversial protest amounted to providing “respectability” to a movement whose charter was to break India because the campus was not a “sovereign territory” like some foreign embassy. “Slogans were raised for breaking up the country and it was the country’s misfortune that a leader of Congress, which has been in the mainstream so far, went there to express sympathies with those who did so. It was ideological hollowness,” Jaitley had said . Between ‘distress tourism’ and personal visits abroad, Rahul Gandhi’s life is one big vacation. It is the sad tale of a Dynast who remains a misfit in politics.