Congress President Rahul Gandhi was today a target of criticism and ridicule by political rivals as it turned out he was away in Italy to meet his maternal grandmother at a time when the results of the Assembly elections in the Northeast were declared, the outcome of the polls giving his party little to cheer.
Rahul had on March 1 tweeted about his plans to go to Italy over the Holi weekend. He wrote in his tweet: “My Nani is 93. She's is the kindest soul ever. This Holi weekend, I'm going to surprise her! I can't wait to give her a hug...”
The BJP did not let go of the opportunity to attack Rahul. BJP President Amit Shah, in his press conference following the results of the Assembly elections in the Northeast, ridiculed Rahul's decision to visit Italy at this juncture. In response to a question on Rahul, he said, “I got a WhatsApp message today that elections are being held in Italy.”
Earlier, senior BJP leader and Union minister Giriraj Singh said, referring to the Congress President, that there is such a leader who knows exactly when to run away from the country.
BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi had commented yesterday that the arrest of Karti Chidambaram, son of former Union minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, in connection with the INX Media case, had made Rahul remember his nani. “Very nice gesture, Karti's arrest ne nani yaad dila di,” she tweeted, playing on a popular Hindi proverb, which means making a person realise the enormity of the problems that he or she is faced with.
Rahul has faced criticism in the past for not being in India when his party has needed him the most. Not just political rivals, leaders in the Congress have found his visits to foreign shores “ill-timed”. He had left his party leaders stunned a couple of years back, when they came to know that Rahul had gone on a 'sabbatical', that lasted around two months, just when it was getting ready to take on the Narendra Modi government on farmers' issues.
However, Rahul aides say that he took the small break to go to Italy at this juncture as this was the only window that was available as the Budget session of Parliament resumes on March 5, and he would also now have to prepare for the AICC Session to be held from March 16 to 18. After that, he will be pre-occupied with preparations for the Assembly elections in Karnataka.