Reports about Rahul Gandhi's sabbatical in Bangkok have sparked off a variety of negative and satirical reactions relating to the timing of his 'holiday', announced to the media recently by his mother Congress chief Sonia Gandhi herself.
Reports about Rahul Gandhi's sabbatical in Bangkok have sparked off a variety of negative and satirical reactions relating to the timing of his 'holiday', announced to the media recently by his mother Congress chief Sonia Gandhi herself.
In Allahabad, posters have been put up declaring a big reward for anyone giving information about the junior Gandhi's whereabouts. "Congress ke senapati laa-pata," reads the legend on these posters. (Leader of Congress missing.) The poster, said to be the handiwork of local BJP leaders, carries a big photo of Rahul Gandhi and that of a BJP leader.
The poster holds the promise: "Suchna dene waale ko maala maal kiya jaayega." (The person giving information will get a huge reward.) Interestingly, the posters have also been put up outside Anand Bhavan, the ancestral house of the Nehru-Gandhi family, as also near the district Congress office.
Meanwhile, BJP MP and renowned Bhojpuri singer Manoj Tiwari also took the opportunity to poke fun at the Congress vice-president. "He is an unmarried child. Let him roam around in Bangkok and Pataya," he quipped while replying to reporters' questions in Varanasi on Wednesday. "Why are you making such an issue about it. He has all the right to go there," he was heard saying on a news channel, hiding his face with both his hands to suppress his laughter.
The "untimely" sabbatical, reportedly for "introspection" over the Congress party's steeply dipping electoral fortunes, has sparked off a wave of disenchantment in Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi, too.
"It's totally inappropriate of him to be holidaying at a time when the Parliament would be debating the budget," said Ramesh Sharma, a local resident. "He should have been there to raise our voice for new schemes and more funds for Amethi's development," he said angrily.
A local level Congress leader also sounded rather disgruntled as he said: "Ever since the BJP has come to power, schemes started during Congress rule have either been abandoned midway or shifted elsewhere. But our 'yuvraj' doesn't seem to be bothered."
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