On January 30th 2016, Rahul Gandhi visited Hyderabad Central University to join the protesting students in their hunger strike against a number of demands that they have raised after the suicide of Rohith Vemula.
The day also marked the 68th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and probably keeping the significance of the date in his mind and in a failed attempt to score few political brownie points Congress scion Rahul Gandhi once more decide to give sense and sanity a complete miss and compared Mahtma gandhi to Rohith Vermula.
Rahul Gandhi stated, “Gandhi lived his life searching what he called his truth, his understanding of the world. Fought for it all his life. He was killed by the forces that didn’t want to hear what his truth was. The exact thing was done to Rohith”.
Rahul also thanked the students and Rohith Vemula ‘s family for inviting him to the ‘function’. Yes, that’s what he thinks it was. He couldn’t find a better word to describe the hunger strike on 13th day of a young scholar’s death. His vocabulary probably seems on par with the number of seats scored by congress in 2014 Loksabha elections.
Indeed it wasn’t the first time Rahul Gandhi made a fool out of himself by making a senseless statements. From Jupiter velocity to Poverty being state of mind, Rahul Gandhi has mostly sounded anything but intelligent. But with this he actually stretched it a little too far!
I fail to think of even a single other person on earth who with even a little bit of brains would link the Mahtma who was an epitome of non-violence and a stern fighter with anyone, let alone with a person who committed suicide following a physical scuffle and a disciplinary action.
Rohith Vemula committed suicide at a hostel in the university on January 17, weeks after he and five others were suspended from the facility for allegedly assaulting an ABVP activist. Their are at-least two words in this sentence that Gandhi would have strongly disagreed to- Suicide and Assault!
Almost all of us know the famous anecdote where Mahatma Gandhi had to face a racial discrimination in during a rain journey in South Africa. Racial discrimination against people of color was part of daily life in South Africa. Gandhi experienced the prejudice firsthand after he booked first-class passage on a train to Pretoria. A white person complained about Gandhi travelling in First class compartment and at the very first stop he was physically assaulted and pushed out of the train by the train conductor. He spent that whole chilly night of winter on the platform and took a stern resolution to fight against such discrimination’s.
And he stood by it all his life. Gandhi was a fighter. He wouldn’t quit, not until he has made his point loud and clear.
Gandhi was never fond of rules and that particularly was because those were the rules made by invaders of our motherland. Non-cooperation was always his favorite choice of weapon and he refused to bow down to pressures of the brutal English government. Yet, Gandhi was also the strongest believer of democracy and he dedicated all his life to cherish this dream.
Mahtma Gandhi was a revolutionary all his life but he also knew the restrains and responsibility that would be required to turn an independent nation into a functional Republic.
Also Needless to say Gandhi was and is one of the strongest symbol of Non-Violence. Scuffles weren’t his cup of tea and he wouldn’t have supported such acts anyways.
So Mahtma Gandhi was all that Rohith Vemula wasn’t. Rohith Vemula committed suicide. Gandhi didn’t attained this stature by losing a fight with himself but by winning a fight with much adverse forces.
Indeed when it comes to Rahul Gandhi anything is possible.
Probably last time Rahul Gandhi made sense, dinosaurs were still walking on the face of earth.
