In colleges, Rahul Gandhi does a ’cool’ act

M.today

Mysore/Shimoga/Dharwad, August 13: When asked to wave, he ran into the crowd. When someone addressed him ’’sir,’’ he wanted to be called ’’Rahul.’’ When a principal of a college wanted him to be part of a group photo, he appeared to be at the principal’s service. As he rode past Dharwad, he stopped to have sev puri and egg puffs from roadside food joints. 

 

Rahul Gandhi, AICC General Secretary and high profile Congress leader, was every bit an “aam aadmi” during his two-day trip across the State as he was in the rest of his nationwide tours to galvanise youth. The first day of his two-day trip began in Mysore and ended at Dharwad where he interacted with youth at Dr Veerendra Heggade Kalakshetra.

He told the group that education should be made criterion for Indian politicians, as a meagre 7 per cent of them are graduates. Also, though there cannot be a hard-and-fast rule on retirement age of politicians, he would prefer retiring “from active politics at the age of 55.”

In Mysore, students of St Philomena’s College had gathered at the St Mathias School auditorium, where the Gandhi scion talked on “Dream of Youth in India.” He was asked questions that spanned a variety of topics, which he answered with a smile.

Later, he walked along the barricades and shook hands with the students in the school compound. He went about mixing with the students affably yet making sure he did not create commotion enough to disrupt school work. Walking into one of the classes, he asked an inquisitive bunch about the games they played and what they wanted to be. When a student said he wanted to be a policeman, Rahul asked him playfully, “Will you frighten me, after becoming a cop?”

Rahul was ‘cool’ enough to let the students forget that they were interacting with one of the most powerful politicians in the country.

Here, too, a barrage of queries awaited the leader. While Mysore students kept the questions simple, not wanting to embarrass the young leader, in Shimoga, the home district of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, students were point-blank as they asked about exploitation of natural resources and the Naxal problem. Rahul took on the questions calmly, and on one occasion even asked a student to put himself in the shoes of Union Home Minister P C Chidambaram and suggest tips to the Naxal problem. Finally, to wind up, Rahul urged the students, “Don’t criticise India. As life is a mixture of negative and positives, so is India.”