Rahul spends night at Dalit's house

Shravasti (UP), Sep 24 (PTI) Continuing his visits to Dalit households, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spent the night at a Dalit's house in a village in this district.

Gandhi, who is on a surprise visit to the state, visited Ram Nagar area in Barabanki district yesterday. He then arrived to the district last evening and drove straight to Chutkaideh village under Rampur Devman Gram Panchayat area, a party worker said.

After mingling with the locals, he spent the night in the house of a Dalit Gram Pradhan Chedi Pasi.

The news of the visit by Rahul took the district officials by surprise who said that they had not been informed about his programme or itinerary.

Gandhi is likely to visit a school in neighbouring Tilhar village today where he will meet with the children and the locals to get the first hand account of their problem, the worker added.
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Rahul Gandhi on surprise visit to UP, Maya govt to complain

LUCKNOW: He came. He saw. And he left behind a harried lot of senior partymen and bureaucrats frantically trying to confirm the facts.

The Gandhi scion made a visit to the state without any Special security, due to which the Mayawati government has decided to file an official complaint against him to the central government.

Senior UP police officials have said that they will raise the issue with the SPG as the current location of Rahul's cavalcade is not known.

For once, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi kept everyone guessing about what he was up to. It took the authorities more than six hours to put together all the information that had trickled in bits and pieces about Rahul’s Wednesday evening hush-hush visit to the state.

Though on the face of it, the secrecy behind his visit was being seen as an SPG move in the wake of the recent attack on the Shatabdi Express train in Haryana in which Rahul was travelling, the babus in UP saw much more to it for obvious reasons. After all he has been playing a backward and Dalit messiah to the hilt, much to the chagrin of chief minister Mayawati.

It all started around 3 pm when some eye-witnesses saw Rahul Gandhi step out of Indian Airlines flight Number 204 at Amausi Airport. In the absence of the usual slogan-shouting supporters and posse of cops at every nook and corner of the premises, apart from the other security paraphernalia, it took the onlookers sometime to accept that it was actually Rahul Gandhi himself.

“Everything was so unlike a political leader’s visit that we too were not sure if it was him or someone resembling him,” said an eye-witness. Within minutes of his arrival, Rahul was speeding through the VIP Road towards the city in a fleet of SUVs. While Rahul was seated in an Innova, his SPG entourage followed him in three other SUVs.

Rahul’s first known stoppage was around 4 pm at the Ram Nagar crossing in Barabanki district barely 35 kilometres from the state capital. He was seen interacting with some villagers before fleet rolled on. Next, he was spotted in Bahraich around 7:30 pm. After a brief halt and some interaction with villagers by the roadside, his motorcade left for Munshiganj.

When the final picture emerged, it was revealed that the young Gandhi’s clandestine visit was for having a first-hand account of the status of Priyadarshini - a self-help group scheme that was his own brainchild and introduced in 2002. Initially limited to Rae Bareli and Sultanpur - the traditional Congress belt in Uttar Pradesh, the scheme was recently extended to 10 other districts including some in Bundelkhand region and the rest in Eastern UP including Shravasti and Bahraich.
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Holy cow! Congress and the power of 71 characters


Prem Panicker asks why the Congress party and the media are getting into a lather over Shashi Tharoor's tweets.

The way the Congress party bristles over what is a harmless post on social networking site Twitter, you would think its symbol was the porcupine.

To fully appreciate the ridiculousness of a brouhaha that is already four days old and counting, consider the posts that led to it:

At 11.27 in the morning of September 14, veteran journalist and rediff.com columnist Kanchan Gupta asked Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor a question: 'Tell us Minister, next time you travel to Kerala , will it be cattle class?'

Twenty minutes later the minister, an inveterate user of Twitter, responded: 'Absolutely, in cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!'

Twelve words -- or, in Twitter measure, 71 characters -- that have led to a veritable storm that, despite Tharoor's September 18 apology, continues to be 'Breaking News' on our television channels, fuel endless 'debates' on prime time, and get considerable ink from both reporters and commentators in the national media.

The wit in Tharoor's response is of the collegiate variety, but that is no reason to set off a tsunami. Yet the party, led by resident cactus Jayanti Natrajan, got very prickly about how the phrase 'cattle class' denigrates the average Indian. How so?

Consider, first, that the phrase was actually part of Gupta's question. 'Will you travel cattle class?', I ask you. 'Yes, I will travel cattle class,' you respond. Had I asked if you will travel 'economy class', your response would likely have used that phrase.

In any event, what is there about the phrase 'cattle class' to have everyone's quills standing on end? Tharoor made the remark on September 14, but he has been travelling economy class well before that; The Times of India featured rediff.com contributor Jay Mandal's picture of the minister crumpled up in sleep in an economy class seat August 9, which we you can see alongside.

So you could argue that if the reference is derogatory, he includes himself with the rest of the great unwashed masses, and is at best guilty of denigrating himself along with the rest.

If 'cattle class' is in fact derogatory, it is the airlines -- who have over time reduced leg room to non-existent levels in order to pack in more people -- who should take umbrage, for it is airlines that are treating us like cattle, a point Tharoor made in his September 18 apology.

That is why I suspect the outrage various Congress spokespersons have expressed is disingenuous. It is not 'cattle class' that bothers them, it is the other phrase: 'Holy cows' -- only, they don't have the courage of conviction to come right out and say that they are outraged over the perceived insult to 'Madam'.

Consider again the date of Tharoor's post: September 14. Something else happened that morning: Sonia Gandhi flew economy class from New Delhi to Mumbai . It is a commonplace occurrence in your lives and mine -- but when Sonia Gandhi travels economy, the presses are stopped and it becomes 'breaking news'.

The minister was likely being randomly flip, and giving free rein to a sense of humoUr honed in the halls of St Stephen's -- but for the sycophantic rabble that makes up India's ruling party, this was lese majeste magnified to the max.

[It is a different thing altogether that Sonia's gesture was futile -- she was in Mumbai to attend a party event and not on government business; yet half the government and a sizeable proportion of the police had to be deployed for her reception and her security. Whatever 'Madam' saved flying economy, she wasted thrice as much in the multi-car cavalcade, in the man hours of hundreds of police and all the rest of it -- so what price austerity, Mr Pranab Mukherjee , sir?]

And therein lies the hypocrisy of Jayanti Natarajan and her fellow porcupines -- in true 'more loyal than the king' fashion, they take umbrage where none was intended. But rather than come right out and protest the 'insult' to their totem, they use the common man's ostensibly wounded sensibilities as a fig leaf to cover the real reason.

A question: In the days since September 14, have you heard of one 'common man' or common woman even, getting his or her truss in a knot over Tharoor's remark? No, because the common man/woman/person has much larger issues to worry about -- unlike some of our elected representatives.

The Congress spent much of 2008 being serially embarrassed by the BJP, the Left and others. Now that the Left has been silenced by the electorate and the BJP has its hands full with Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Jaswant Singh , it appears the ruling party in a spirit of political accommodation is busy embarrassing itself.

While on that, consider the heights to which sycophancy is taken within the party. On the same flight as Sonia was Bhiwandi MP Suresh Tawre, who was seated in business class. When he saw his party chief walking into economy he panicked, and hastily switched seats with another passenger.

Was austerity the point of the exercise? Certainly not -- the business class ticket had in any case been paid for. But in the monkey-see, monkey-do culture the Congress fosters, it would have been impossible for Tawre to continue sprawling in business class while his 'Madam' sat within the cramped confines of 'economy class'.

So he made the grand gesture -- and contemporary politics is nothing if it is not about empty gestures.

The only ones to benefit is the media, especially television. One night, one television channel hosted a breathless debate on the 'issue' of Tharoor's 'Twittering' [the highlight, for me, was a Congress spokesperson, Tom Vadakkan, pronouncing judgment on Twitter as a site for lonely people, as if his startling 'insight' had anything to do with the question]. And the next night another channel, not to be outdone, will debate the 'issue' in its turn.

So that is what we have -- a thin skinned ruling party peopled by tiny minds that cannot encompass a little harmless self-deprecation, and a media that is so devoid of issues, it debates a 71-character post as if the future of the nation hangs on the outcome.

Ironically, the severity of the Congress reaction -- the party says it will take 'disciplinary action' at the right time -- transforms a harmless joke into tangible reality.
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Do you think sudden austerity drive from Congress is just a drama?

NEW DELHI - As Congress leaders try to outdo each other in taking austerity measures, other political parties have dubbed the drive “mere tokenism” and “drama” which they say aims to divert attention from the serious problems plaguing the country.

“What is more important is real work on the ground to address the suffering of the common man. Tokenism bereft of real work on ground becomes patent hypocrisy and laughable,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told IANS.

“Recently prime minister (Manmohan Singh) wrote to Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi conveying his unhappiness over his performance,” said the BJP leader. “So the performance has to go beyond tokenism.”

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP Basudeb Acharya also called it tokenism in the time of rising prices and farmer suicides.

“Farmers are still committing suicide. Prices of essential commodities are spiralling. If they have any concern, they should universalise the public distribution system and announce relief packages for farmers.

“It is merely tokenism. They have no concern for the problems of people. I demand a special parliament session to discuss the crisis country is facing,” Acharya said.

The Congress leaders’ austerity drive began with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asking two union ministers, S.M. Krishna and Shashi Tharoor, to vacate their suites in five-star hotels.

Mukherjee had said it on the instructions of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, who has asked all party MPs and legislators to contribute 20 percent of their salaries for drought relief and adopt a simple lifestyle to sympathise with the “less fortunate”.

Since then, Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi have both flown economy class. Now Sonia Gandhi’s son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has taken a train from Delhi to Ludhiana to cut down expenses.

However, opposition leaders are not impressed.

“It is a totally pre-planned drama. The economy cannot be revived by merely travelling in economy class once or twice. Instead, they should try to curb corruption rampant in the government,” said Samajwadi Party MP Kamal Akhtar.

“It is hypocrisy and mere tokenism. It is unfortunate the government and the party are trying to divert attention from real issues. It does not matter whether you travel by economy class, cargo or bullock cart. People want performance,” the BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

Many commoners too hope the Congress top brass will do more.

“I know they are trying to set an example. But their efforts should go beyond such gestures. Rahul Gandhi’s train ride would not help people who are feeling the pinch of price-rise,” said software executive Krishan Kumar.

Shweta Kalra, a student, said: “These political leaders travelling economy class or by train would create more hassles for the common man. People with VIP security would definitely book rows of seats, and their security will create difficulties for people commuting with them.”

Unfazed, the Congress is pressing ahead with the austerity drive and says its leaders will set an example.

“In tough times, such measures by the Congress leadership will set an example for others and youngsters to lead a simple and austere life,” said Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed.

“If there is time… (we have) no problem travelling by train,” he added. Even Rahul’s father Rajiv Gandhi used to travel a lot by train.”
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Applying U.P. concept across the country, a shallow idea: Rahul

Rahul Gandhi made it clear that the DMK-Congress alliance in the State as well as in the Centre was working well.
Photo:C Venkatachalapathy
THE HINDU Rahul Gandhi made it clear that the DMK-Congress alliance in the State as well as in the Centre was working well. Photo:C Venkatachalapathy

Indicating it was premature for the Congress to consider going it alone in the next Lok Sabha elections, party General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said it would be a “shallow idea” to follow the U.P. experiment in other States.
On a visit here to strengthen the Youth Congress in Tamil Nadu, where the party has not been in power for the last 40 years, he made it clear that the DMK-Congress alliance in the State as well as in the Centre was working well.
Mr. Gandhi parried questions on why he had not met DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi during the current visit saying the media was needlessly trying to rake up a controversy.
“In many ways I am an admirer of Mr. Karunanidhi and have high respect for him,” he said, adding that the Congress has a good relationship with the DMK.
Asked whether the successful experiment by the Congress of not having any tie-ups in Uttar Pradesh in the last Lok Sabha elections — where its numbers went from nine to 21 — would be replicated in other States, he said, “The idea that the U.P. concept can be applied universally across the country is a shallow idea.
“I think you have to look at every State and look at the dynamics within each State,” he said.
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Militant outfit threatens to kill Congress workers

Imphal, Sept 7 (PTI) A militant outfit has issued death threats to Congress workers in Manipur alleging that the party had worked for merger of the state with the Indian Union in October 1949.

The banned Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) said the Congress party had worked for merger of Manipur with the Indian Union in 1949 and because of this they would start killing Congress workers, in a statement issued here yesterday.

Congress party sources said they had not received any threat from any militant outfit.
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