Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Much like everything else in the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the white T-shirt Rahul Gandhi has sported since Day 1 of the march has attracted scrutiny. While at the beginning of the yatra, the BJP targeted Gandhi for wearing a “Burberry T-shirt worth Rs 41,000”, Gandhi’s sartorial choice was again being discussed on Monday.
A Congress spokesperson said that while the MP visited the memorials of great leaders during the day in the bitter cold, BJP leaders had wrapped themselves in blankets. Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid called Gandhi a “tapasvi (ascetic)” and “superhuman”.
On September 11, at a party event in Jodhpur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah first started a conversation about Gandhi’s clothes when he said he was wearing a “foreign-made jersey”.
“Rahul baba has embarked on Bharat Jodo Yatra, wearing a foreign jersey … foreign T-shirt. Friends, I want to remind him what he had said in Parliament — ‘Bharat is not a nation’. Rahul baba, in which book have you read this? This is that nation for which lakhs of people have sacrificed their heads and coloured the land red. This is that nation where thousands of sisters committed ‘jauhar’ for honour and for the country. But this doesn’t seem like a country to you?” said Shah.
While the conversation about Gandhi’s white T-shirt and trousers died down, it resurfaced again when the yatra entered the northern states of the country during the winter. Gandhi was seen wearing the T-shirt during the yatra’s stints in Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi, leading social media users to wonder how he was weathering the bitter cold without any warm clothes. Former BJP leader Sudheendra Kulkarni who joined the Yatra in Haryana tweeted on December 21, “Walked 7.5 kms with a Tapasvi in his epic Bharat Jodo Yatra in Haryana this afternoon.”
As the Yatra entered Delhi on December 24, Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar told NDTV, “When you face so many attacks, your body becomes proof.”
On Monday, the national capital reeling under a cold wave, Gandhi again wore the white T-shirt as he visited Rajghat and the memorials of former prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The yatra is currently on a break till January 3.
ANI quoted senior Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid as saying, “Rahul Gandhi is superhuman. While we are freezing in the cold and wearing jackets, he is going out in T-Shirts. He is like a yogi doing his ‘tapasya’ with focus.”
“Lord Ram’s ‘khadau (wooden slippers)’ goes very far. Sometimes when Ram ji is not able to reach, Bharat takes the ‘khadau’ and goes to places. Like that, we have carried the ‘khadau’ in UP. Now that ‘khadau’ has reached UP, Ram ji will also come,” Khurshid said, according to ANI.
At a press conference, spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “BJP leaders used to say that Rahul Gandhi would go abroad for the Christmas holidays. But today, in the bitter cold, when the BJP leaders are busy trying to break India wrapped in blankets, Rahul ji is paying homage at the memorials of great leaders. Will the army of ‘Mafiveer’ apologise?”
Shrinate was responding to Union minister Prahlad Joshi who spoke in Parliament last week about Gandhi “breaking (Bharat Jodo) Yatra to holiday abroad”. The Congress spokesperson added, “For Rahul Gandhi, the Yatra is like a ‘tapasya’ as he wants to take everyone along.”
Hitting out at Gandhi, Priti Gandhi, who identifies herself as a BJP worker, tweeted, “Rahul Gandhi’s appearance is being discussed. He’s not the first politician trying to position himself with a ‘manufactured’ appearance. With his sandals & socks, oversized sweater, crumpled pants & muffler, even Arvind Kejriwal fooled a lot of people!! It’s the same strategy!!”
