For the BJP, it would have been easy to paint a picture of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as a ‘non-serious Neta’, who prefers to take a holiday.
However, this is not the first time Congress stalwart Rahul Gandhi has raised eyebrows with his oddly timed foreign trips. (Photo: PTI/File)
But that did not last long. His latest vacation has once again raised questions about his ability to be a committed Neta. And the comparison with the prime minister is inevitable.
Everyone is entitled to a holiday, even Rahul Gandhi. But it is the timing of these breaks that raises the most question when he takes them.
The latest was another foreign trip while the country and the Congress were mourning the passing of former prime minister Manmohan Singh. And this is in the face of the fact that the grand old party is making a big fuss and crying over his memory and last rites.
However, this is not the first time Gandhi has raised eyebrows with his oddly timed foreign trips.
In 2019, which was an eventful year, he was missing during the anti-CAA protests. When elections were held in Maharashtra and Haryana that year, Gandhi was mostly away with Priyanka Gandhi to fill the post. Or even during the winter session, when the farm laws were being debated.
But the break that raised the most eyebrows was when he disappeared for nearly 15 days when the Congress lost the elections in 2014. Later, it was learnt that he was on a Vipassana trip to Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. The party said he had gone to strategise, but nothing changed after that.
When the Special Protection Group (Amendment) Bill, 2019 was debated in Parliament, and the Congress opposed it saying that withdrawing it would pose a security threat, the Union Home Minister said that Gandhi had travelled abroad 247 times between 2014 and 2019; that too without informing anyone because he was part of the Special Protection Group (SPG) and did not take it with him.
The BJP said that even when he went on official trips abroad to attend seminars, he would stay abroad for a few days and it was an excuse for a holiday. Like this time, when he went to the US — his first trip as Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha — he stayed there and only a few party members knew about him.
Not only that, there are questions about his planned outings as well. For instance, he attended a wedding on the last day of the winter session when the Congress was protesting against the Ambedkar cause.
It was easy for the BJP to paint a picture of Gandhi as a “non-serious person” who preferred to take a holiday. The Bharat Jodhu Yatra sought to change that image, and it did so for a while when he was seen as a non-serious man. A politician who travelled the country on foot without a break.
But that didn’t last long. His recent break has once again raised questions about his ability to be a committed Neta. And the comparison with the prime minister is inevitable.
Politics News Rahul Gandhi on ‘break’ as India mourns Manmohan Singh: A look at all his ‘ill-timed’ foreign trips.
