Milestones Rahul Gandhi achieved with his SBI Branch Theatrics

In a democracy, public opinion weighs more than what opportunist politicians like M³ (Mulayam, Mayawati, and Mamta), Kejriwal, and Rahul Gandhi have to say.  From the common man to celebrities, activists (including Anna Hazare), almost all of them are supporting PM Modi’s revolutionary step that aims to curb black money.  Even experts like V Vaidyanathan and Dinesh Kanabar believe that this move can help in getting the huge cash pile back in the market.

Bringing parallel economy into the regular economy cannot be painless. People did face inconvenience; but they were happy with their Prime Minister’s decision. As expected, news channels controlled by leftist editors preferred to show interactions with unhappy people standing inside banks and outside ATMs. Thankfully, neutral journalists did interact with citizens who did not mind waiting in the queue and face inconvenience to improve their country’s future.

As pointed out by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, during Congress party’s ten years of rule, they did not take a single step to curb black money. They did almost nothing to control food inflation and help the poor during their entire tenure.

Now suddenly out of nowhere, party’s 47-year-old vice-president Rahul Gandhi has emerged and claimed that their party is pro-poor. Rahul Gandhi popped up for a photo op at Parliament Street based SBI branch with his security guards and bunch of party workers on Friday. He probably visited SBI branch for the first time in his life.

Visuals released by news channels clearly show that Rahul Gandhi’s arrival caused inconvenience to the people at the SBI branch.  Individuals waiting for more than an hour were asked to go away as bank officials closed the branch for some time. While most of the people were struggling, some individuals (suspected to be Rahul’s workers) surrounded him and started taking selfies.

“Poor people are facing trouble; I just want to stand with them. I wish to exchange Rs. 4000 from the bank like a common man,”-said Congress vice-president while standing with more than ten SPG men. Does the Congress party think that people are foolish? Intelligence agencies had warned the UPA Government about too many counterfeit notes being circulated in the market. But, Rahul and Manmohan Singh did nothing. His party should be the last one to use words “public” and “welfare.”

Someone has probably asked the 47-year-old to act like an angry young man while in front of the camera.

He started laughing after exchanging money inside the bank.

Congress spokespersons remain uninformed?

Union Minister Piyush Goyal interacted with journalists from Times Now on Friday. He stressed on the point that during the Congress regime, RBI policies were structured to help certain companies; even banks were forced to favor selected business houses. All the decisions are being investigated, and Congress is completely aware about the same. Still, Con party spokespersons discussed Mallya and Lalit Modi issue on several channels during the last three days. One may wonder if they find time to read newspapers or not.

Are they and their party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi was unaware that Modi Government has recently requested the British PM to handover Lalit Modi, Mallya, and Christian Michel?

Anyway, getting back to Friday’s SBI ATM drama, journalist Zakka Jacob rightly pointed out during his show that whenever natural calamities happen, whenever there is a problem, Rahul Gandhi reaches the spot to make a political point. He has become a photo op politician.

“What did Rahul Gandhi prove by visiting SBI’s branch? Just told the world that he is standing with the common man? Issuing a press release and conducting a press conference to criticize the government would have proved better. Why did he cause inconvenience to the people who were waiting under the hot sun for more than four hours?”- asked Jacob.

Let’s take a look at how Twitter reacted to Rahul’s recent theatrics:

https://twitter.com/ThilakrajAiyer/status/797043295121608704

https://twitter.com/herohemant6/status/797043819678076929

https://twitter.com/RefugeeBluesKP/status/797046064259932160

https://twitter.com/Sudhaanshu1989/status/797084076398309377

https://twitter.com/sadapunekar/status/797029431726501888