NEW DELHI: For the second time in the course of the Congress’s ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, party leader Rahul Gandhi’s T-shirt has generated controversy. If it was the alleged high-priced T-shirt earlier, it is “only T-shirt” which has led to a debate on his missing jacket.
Rahul, 52, embarked on the ambitious 3,570-km Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7. Just two days later, the T-shirt he was wearing during the yatra drew the people’s attention.
The BJP said the Nehru-Gandhi scion was wearing a Burberry T-shirt which was priced at Rs 41,257.
The Congress hit back saying the BJP was targeting superfluous issues.
Rahul, meanwhile, switched over to non-branded white T-shirt thereafter.
However, by the time the yatra reached Haryana on December 21, the public discourse too switched to Rahul’s T-shirt again and the lack of any jacket despite the biting cold weather.
While the others accompanying Rahul in the yatra, such as former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Hooda and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala, were seen loaded with warm clothes, he was wearing only a half-sleeved white-coloured T-shirt.
Rahul himself broached the “only T-shirt” topic when the yatra reached Delhi on December 24. Addressing a rally at the Red Fort in the evening, he said media persons asked him if he did not feel cold. “I thought they are asking me but why do they not ask (the same question from) the farmers, labourers and poor children of India?”
Rahul Gandhi’s T-shirt shot into prominence again on December 28, on the occasion of the Congress party's 138th foundation day at the party headquarters in New Delhi when a media person asked him whether he would continuously keep wearing only the T-shirt.
Rahul quipped, “Jab tak chal rahi hai... nahi kaam karegi to dekhenge (Will continue till it is possible. Will see when it stops working.)”
Rahul Gandhi during winter in the past
There is surely something unique about Rahul Gandhi and winter of 2022. It is the first year when the Wayanad MP is seen without any warm clothes during the winter season. Otherwise, he has worn a jacket in the past.
He has been seen wearing at least a half jacket during the winters in the past. For instance, in a tweet on December 13, 2018, he wore a half jacket over his white kurta. It was when he was attempting to bring about a rapprochement between Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was the Congress campaign committee chairperson for the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly election, while Kamal Nath was the party’s state president.
In January 2018, he had courted a controversy over allegedly wearing a full-sleeved Burberry jacket priced at $995 or Rs 60,000 during a concert in Shillong. The Meghalaya unit of the BJP said in a tweet, “So @OfficeOfRG, soot (pun intended!)-boot ki sarkar with ‘black’ money fleeced from Meghalayan state exchequer by rampant corruption? Instead of singing away our woes, you could have given a report card of your inefficient govt in Meghalaya! Your indifference mocks us!”
Taking a dig at Rahul’s jacket, one Maithun with Twitter handle @Being_Humor said, “Fata Kurta to ₹60,000 worth jacket. Poverty is a state of mind. - Shri Rahul Gandhi.”
Latest row over Rahul Gandhi’s T-shirt
The latest round of controversy over Rahul’s T-shirt has been generated after the former Congress president visited the memorials of several leaders in Delhi early morning on December 26. The capital was reeling under extreme cold wave conditions due to westerly disturbances and the temperature around that time was 6 degrees Celsius.
Despite the biting cold, Rahul wore just a half-sleeved T-shirt and offered floral tributes at the samadhis of Mahatma Gandhi, former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee; and former deputy prime minister Babu Jagjivan Ram.
Several Congress leaders and the party supporters hailed Rahul for the act and credited spirituality for it. For instance, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said on Twitter, “How can one survive in 6 degree Celsius only in a T-shirt? Such self-control and self-power belongs only to ascetics.”
Political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla said, “Many are commenting about #RahulGandhi ji in this cold in just a T-shirt. This is the power of mental, physical, emotional & spiritual fitness. Our body becomes indifferent to extreme cold due to meditation and fitness (images of monks in snow clad mountains wearing v little). As someone who is heavily into fitness- I can (say) this is a result of mental and physical strength. Good quality muscles and more importantly a very strong mental and physical fitness aided by meditation.”
Scientist and author Anand Ranganathan gave another logic behind Rahul not wearing warm clothes. He said, “One in five Italians have a mutation in the ACTN3 gene because of which they can withstand extreme cold.”
Rahul’s mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was born in Italy.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya mocked Rahul for wearing only T-shirt during winters. Tagging a news report, he said, “Rahul Jha, a 32-year-old unemployed man working on his 9th startup idea, has decided to launch his 10th startup – a national political party – after he successfully walked for 3 kilometers in Delhi cold wearing just an underwear.”
However, it was former Union minister Salman Khurshid whose comments triggered a major controversy. Speaking to media persons on December 26, He likened Rahul to Lord Ram and said, "Rahul Gandhi is superhuman. While we are freezing in the cold and wearing jackets, he is going out in T-shirts (for his Bharat Jodo Yatra). He is like a yogi doing his 'tapasya' with focus."
He further said, "Lord Ram's 'khadau' (wooden footwear) goes very far. Sometimes when Ram ji is not able to reach, Bharat takes the 'khadau' and goes to places. Like that, we have carried the 'khadau' in Uttar Pradesh. Now that 'khadau' has reached Uttar Pradesh. Ram ji (Rahul Gandhi) will also come."
Khurshid's statement enraged the leaders of the ruling BJP. On December 27, the party’s national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the Congress could do any kind of politics to fetch votes.
He said, "It is in the DNA of the Congress party. If they want votes, they can do any kind of politics and this is the reason behind Salman Khurshid comparing our adorable deity Lord Shri Ram with such a person (Rahul Gandhi) who is out on bail and the people of India will give him the answer."
Khurshid added fuel to the fire when he said: "Rahul Gandhi is not Lord Ram but the BJP is following the path of Ravana. Rahul Gandhi is not Lord Ram, but he can follow the path shown by Lord Ram. They (BJP) are saying that you do not have the right to walk on it. We have objections as they are following the path of Ravana instead of Ram."
The Bharat Jodo Yatra is on a break from December 25 to January 2. It will resume on January 3 to finally culminate in Srinagar on January 26. All eyes would be on Rahul whether he dons warm clothes in Srinagar or even before the yatra reaches Jammu and Kashmir.
