It all started with MNS shouldering marathi manoos issue the old paper tiger Bal thakeray who was hibernating for the last 10 years jumped into the bandwagon of marathi pride from retirement.
Bal tharkeray has given free hand to his son to run the party and he failed miserable.Now the paper tiger was whipping his knife towards all the kahn film starsand turned his attention towards biharis when RAHUL INTERFERED HE JUMPED ON TO LASH OUT AT I-CUB SCION OF ROYAL NEHRU FAMILY. to grab the lime lightIF ANYONE needed lessons in political symbolism and how to get your message across to both friends and foes with the least possible effort, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was at hand to impart them in Mumbai on Friday.
Under fire from Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for his comments on how “ Mumbai is for everyone” and how Biharis were also part of the National Security Guard team that killed the 10 gunmen who attacked the metropolis on November 26, 2008, Rahul did not take one false step in charming Mumbaikars while simultaneously attacking his political rivals.
Around noon on Friday, he took a suburban train journey between two of the busiest stations in Mumbai — Andheri and Dadar, the latter the heart of Shiv Sena territory. The Mumbai suburban rail network caters to six million commuters a day on average, but on Friday, state government functionaries, railway authorities and the Mumbai Police were flummoxed when Rahul decided to ride the common man’s public transport instead of using the helicopter kept ready for him. With cameras trailing him, Rahul knew he couldn’t afford to do anything wrong. Exhibit in his “ connect” with the common man in Mumbai was standing in the queue to buy a train ticket. He refused to jump the queue despite being given the right of way by fellow ticket buyers, until someone pointed out that buy first- class train tickets he need not have stood in the queue. “ Ek Ghatkopar, please…” he told the man behind the counter, just as any other Mumbaikar would.
It was not exactly a crowded ride as it was well past peak traffic hours, but whoever was hand to see Rahul — women from the adjacent Ladies compartment, for instance — could not stop gawking at him. Some even made passes at him.
However, his security detail, already paranoid at his vulnerability while using public transport, did not allow many to travel in the first class compartment. Earlier in the day, the police had detained Shiv Sena activists prevent any spur of the moment anti- Rahul demonstrations.
It was at Dadar that Rahul presented Exhibit B of his common man connect. He spent almost 15 minutes at Dadar station, and before any Shiv Sena member could reach there and wave black flags at him as instructed by their chief Bal Thackeray, he had already moved on to take another train Ghatkopar on Mumbai’s Central Line.
Throughout these two train journeys — which lasted slightly more than an hour — Rahul decided to stand just as any Mumbaikar would during peak hours. And since this was being broadcast around the country on all news channels, he undid any hostile sentiment that would have been otherwise directed at him.
He communicated even with the security guard at the ATM where he stopped to withdraw money to buy his train ticket. The Marathi- speaking guard said he could not recognise him immediately. “ I thought he was a regular customer,” the guard said. “ Then saw him… and I recognised him. He shook hands with me and I told him, Saab, kuchh karo… mehangai bahut badh gayi hai ( Sir, do something, everything has become expensive).” He nodded, smiled and left.
The security guard and the suburban commuters may have been impressed with Rahul, but the Shiv Sena wasn’t. Party executive president
Uddhav Thackeray said at a hurriedly called press conference that Rahul’s train journey was merely a “publicity stunt” and that his act of withdrawing money from the ATM was “symbolic of how Delhi’s politicians treat Mumbai like an ATM, from where they can withdraw money any time they want, but never give anything back.”
He was also angered at the security paraphernalia that was used to protect Rahul during the visit. “Over 40,000 policemen guarded the two venues (he went to). I wish the city was guarded like this all the time. It will never face a terror attack,” he said.
Rahul’s Exhibit C was actually his first function in the city — a public address at Bhaidas Hall in Vile Parle where students from nearby colleges such as Mithibai College, Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Sciences, Sathaye College of Arts and Commerce, and Burhani College were invited.
The city Congress unit had screened the students before parading them before Rahul in order to avoid any kind of embarrassing hostility while he spoke to them. Once at the dais, Rahul asked if anyone in the audience had political connections.
When five or six students raised their hands, he said he wanted to communicate with those who did not have any and asked the students if they knew how to join politics. With no answer forthcoming he challenged them that he did not want a similar response the next time he met them. During the question-answer session, he reiterated that “Mumbai belonged to all” and that “everyone had the right to work anywhere in the country”.
This was something he emphasised when he left Mumbai later in the day and continued his journey to the union territory of Puducherry. In an apparent swipe at the Shiv Sena during a talk with students at Pondicherry University, he said, “Ninety-nine per cent of
the people in the country believe they are Indians and act in the national interest, while only one per cent shout and break things. A majority of the people does not get excited about these things and are peace-loving.” Earlier in Mumbai, soon after he got down from the train in Ghatkopar, Rahul presented Exhibit D. He went straight to Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Ghatkopar where 13 years ago, 10 people had died after the police opened fire on Dalits who were protesting the desecration of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue.
Over the years, the statue became a symbol of Dalit pride in the city and Rahul, who did not miss any chance in Mumbai to attract distinct vote banks, made just the right noises with the garlanding of Ambedkar’s statue.
Rahul, who often stayed with Dalits in poverty stricken regions of Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the 2009 general elections, did all he could to attract this constituency in Mumbai. It was as if he had charted his political targets — college-going youngsters, the common man on Mumbai’s trains, the “Marathi Manoos” of Dadar, and indeed the Dalits. It may have been a short six-hour journey for Rahul, but it seemed like one big leap for the Congress in the city.
Cong leader hops trains and wows Mumbai as a bristling Sena cannot hold him off