Why Single Out Rahul Gandhi for Taking a Vacation?

 

Rahul Gandhi has gone to Vietnam for a week-long holiday. Photographs of him carrying his backpack at airports are doing the rounds on social media. He is mocked and targeted, as usual. When there is so much to do on the home front, why should he take a break once in a while? He has done so before, too.

What are these mockers trying to prove? That Rahul Gandhi is unfit to lead an agitation, an opposition coalition, or even the country at some point because he takes off to foreign shores once in a while? Does this theory really hold any water? To me, the answer is a big NO.

Two things are important to understand at the outset. One, his detractors refuse to recognise the fact that politics in the 21st century has changed considerably, and so have the attitudes of politicians who identify with the new age. Two, they call Rahul Gandhi irresponsible and suggest that he goes elsewhere, incognito, to 'service' himself. They cannot stand the fact that he has a mind and body of his own.

By highlighting Gandhi's vacations at supposedly 'unexpected' times, when a crisis is unfolding at home, his detractors actually do something else. They conceal something crucial about the politics and governance of our times: the Prime Minister's gallivanting across foreign shores in the name of business, trade deals, and the development of strategic relationships. They also want to divert attention from the fact that the Prime Minister has offered no explanation regarding the alleged vote-rigging under his favoured CEC, Gyanesh Kumar.

Gandhi's critics want to see him as a traditional politician, comfortable in his home constituency, wearing traditionally accepted attire and making stupid statements to incite people through sheer demagoguery. Contrary to their expectations, Gandhi comes to the podium with complete data in hand. His political approach is that of a social scientist who speaks to an intelligent constituency, respecting people's views and their criticism of the subject at hand. He is ready to argue, debate, and learn.

On the other side of the fence, our Prime Minister does none of these things. Gandhi's opponents on social media want to portray him as a playboy who needs periodic 'servicing' to satisfy his carnal pleasures, while preserving the image of the Prime Minister as a naishtik brahmachari (an avowed celibate). They constantly try to suggest that Gandhi has a 'secret family' elsewhere and that this is why he takes off whenever time permits.

The question is: why should anyone have a problem with another person in the world seeking bodily pleasures, whatever form that indulgence might take? Gandhi is not a 'young' man in the biological sense, especially when compared with the non-biological entities that dominate public life in this country. He has the right to have a family, if he has one, and the right to protect it from public scrutiny, like any other man in the world. Questioning him on these counts is in extremely bad taste. It reflects a low standard of thinking.

Gandhi is answerable to his party, the Congress, and to his constituency. When he leads an agitation, his fellow agitators understand why he, like them, needs some private time to relax, reorganise himself, and strategise. He may not need a battery of people and followers accompanying him wherever he goes. Without Z-category security, he travels abroad alone, like an ordinary man, leaving himself open to assault and abuse. That is the real courage of a man, perhaps something not everyone can claim to possess.

Gandhi is leading an agitation in a country where politicians from the right wing are released from prison to contest elections. He is leading the opposition in a country where right-wing leaders openly oppose reason and education, advising Indian youth to make pakoras or drive taxis instead of taking to the streets to demand their rights. Gandhi bears the enormous responsibility of opposing such staid politics—not just its verbal irrationality, but also its potential for physical aggression.

History has shown us leaders taking revolutions forward and bringing them to success from jails, forests, and countries of exile. A leader need not give up all privacy and remain on the streets at all times. Even CJP leader Abhijit Deepke has asked members of the agitating pressure group from across the country to return to their homes, spend time with their parents and other family members, and happily participate in the festivals of their respective religions and choice.

Have you ever asked Gandhi's detractors whether the rich and powerful of this country have stopped going to clubs, travelling abroad, postponing vacations, celebrating family festivals, shopping, pursuing pleasures, having their daily drinks, or buying gold and vehicles simply because agitations are taking place against the government, even agitations seeking to change it?

If you have not asked that question, why single out Rahul Gandhi? Let him have his vacation, like all the other tired people in the world. Reducing his foreign trips to sexual escapades comes from minds corrupted by power, money, and a lack of education.

We need to respect the youth of this country, not lumpens with extreme right-wing affiliations. We need to respect the young people who organise, agitate, and demand change. We need to respect those who are fighting on our behalf. We should not judge a person simply because he has gone away to find whatever offers him personal comfort and solace. Learn to respect a leader even if he does not satisfy every form of idealism and perfection that you cherish in a leader.

Yes, Rahul Gandhi can be questioned if he takes off again when he is in the Prime Minister's chair, holds a public office, or plays a role in the ruling dispensation. Then, he will need to answer all kinds of questions. He cannot run away from questions posed by the press and the public, as the present Prime Minister does.

— JohnyML