The white kurta-pyjama is regarded as the unwritten dress code for Indian male politicians, especially if they belong to the northern states and more so when they are campaigning in elections. However, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has in these Lok Sabha polls chosen to ditch the kurta-pyjama in favour of the white T-shirt and dark-coloured cargo pants.
On the face of it, in Rahul's case, traditional attire has made way for western clothes which would even qualify as casual wear. However, the choice of clothing is intended to send across a message and the white T-shirt and cargo pants drill has a certain symbolism attached to it.
Rahul recently spoke about what made him go for the T-shirt as his campaign attire. In a video released by the Congress in which he is interacting with party president Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Rahul said the white T-shirt conveys transparency and simplicity. “I prefer it (to be) simple,” he said.
In the same video, he also said he does not think too much about what he is wearing. And that is perhaps the main message that is being conveyed through the white T-shirt—that here is a leader who does not bother too much about his sartorial choices, and is not very conscious about how he looks. The attire, coupled with the salt-and-pepper beard, is meant to create the image of a person who has no time to care about his looks, someone who is busy trying to find solutions to the problems of the people.
This could also be an effort to set him in contrast with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is known to be a careful dresser and has in the campaign turned up in well-coordinated kurta-pyjama, the formal look completed by the waistcoat or what is now known as the 'Modi jacket'.
It was in the Bharat Jodo Yatra that Rahul undertook from Kanyakumari to Kashmir that his white T-shirt and cargo pants routine became well known. The casual clothing came to define the yatri so strongly that even when the yatra traversed through the northern states in peak winter, he refused to wear a jacket.
At the culmination of the yatra in Srinagar on January 30, 2023, Rahul spoke about why he refused to wear woollens during the walkathon. He said: “...Four children came to me. They were beggars and no clothes on. I hugged them. They were cold and shivering. May be they did not have food. I thought if they are not wearing jackets or sweaters, I too shouldn't wear the same.”
He continued with the same look in the second edition of the yatra which travelled from Manipur to Mumbai.
The attire has come to define the look of Rahul, and it was no surprise when the Congress, as part of its crowdfunding initiative, gave T-shirts signed by the leader as gifts to persons who donated Rs 670 or more.
