A day after Rahul Gandhi took a pot-shot at the 88-year-old VS Achuthanandan for being too old for politics, he hit back, calling the Congress general secretary an ‘Amul baby’.
Rahul Gandhi has been called many names in the past and on Sunday, the Kerala CM coined a new one for him. A day after Gandhi took a pot-shot at the 88-year-old VS Achuthanandan for being too old for politics, he hit back, calling the Congress general secretary an ‘Amul baby’.
At a rally in Ernakulam on Saturday, Gandhi said: “If the Left Democratic Front wins in Kerala, you will have a 93-year-old chief minister by the next assembly election.”
Not to be left behind, the veteran Marxist hit back at a rally in Palakkad. “Is it my fault that I am 87 and even at this age I am going on like this?” he asked at an election rally. He said that he was 16 when he got involved in the freedom movement. “Please tell me where was Rahul Gandhi (politically) before he was 40 years old. The Amul baby has come here to campaign for some Amul baby candidates of the Congress,” Achuthanandan said to a huge applause.
Political experts said that Gandhi’s comments exposed his double standards. “The other day he was campaigning in Tamil Nadu requesting the people to give 88-year-old (DMK leader) Karunanidhi another five years as the chief minister. Karunanidhi is confined to a wheelchair,” Paul Zachariah, a columnist and novelist, said. “Will he not be 93 years old after five years?”
Even Sukumar Azheekode, a Malayalam literary giant and professor who is a strong critic of Achuthanandan, took exception to Gandhi’s statement. “VS addresses at least five electoral meetings a day without helicopters and heavy security,” he said. “I do not think Rahul can match his capability.”
Hari Kartha, a political commentator in Kerala, said Gandhi was committing the same mistake as his father. “Rajiv asked West Bengal voters during the 1987 assembly election not to support 73-year-old Jyoti Basu so that someone young from the Congress could take over,” he said. “But the voters re-elected Basu.”
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