A smile cures many problems, goes an old saying but there are a very select few who have the ability to smile and alleviate a problem. Congress posterboy and UPA’s disaster-in-chief Rahul Gandhi is one of the select few who can take a smile to the most unwanted places. The Congress President has displayed his smiling abilities quite often at places like funerals, political debates and after failures. One might say that the Congress prodigy has learnt how to keep a smile even in the most devastating times, but that person would definitely have to be a Congress spokesperson who is paid to carry out this arduous task. But everyone else will confirm that the great Rahul Baba whom BJP leader Subramanian Swami affectionately refers to as ‘buddhu’ does not possess intelligence and mannerisms.
His hug and wink politics in the Parliament with PM Modi drew much flak from around the country, but there are countless occasions when he has made himself look insincere with his antics. Death of a close family member is a grievous occasion, Captain Amarinder Singh’s mother had passed away, Rahul Gandhi went to offer his condolences to the family, smiling. It was not like his smile changed the mood of the room, but then again the incumbent Punjab CM is a loyalist of the Nehru-Gandhi family. His ear to ear smiles were again on display at the funeral of Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalitha in 2016. Thankfully, Jayalalithaa was not alive when Rahul baba was giving his toothy grin else his plans to rope in the former CM into UPA would have died an early death. Not just satisfied with making Congress leaders uncomfortable with his charm, a former Congress CM’s family was shocked by Rahul Gandhi’s smile too. This happened when he arrived, smiling, to pay condolences to the bereaved family of former Karnataka CM Dharam Singh in 2017, post his death due to a cardiac arrest.
Probably the worst defeat Congress had faced in a long, long time was in the Lok Sabha 2014 elections, but Rahul Gandhi seemed unfazed by the rout as he continued smiling. The smile remained plastered on his face even while his mother and the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi was making a speech accepting defeat. It is plausible that Rahul Gandhi does more harm to himself and the Congress than to the opposition parties and realization of the same still eludes him. That realization, when it comes one blessed day would finally be able to wipe that smile off his face. But the smiling face is all that you have to content yourself with today as any other cure has till date not been found for the same.
If history from now on could be written by the Congressmen as it has been in the past, they would declare Rahul’s ever smiling face as a cure to every problem. As it stands today, he is the only smiling leader Congress has, all others keep crying at his expense. Knowing Rahul Gandhi and the backing he gets from leaders from his party it is unlikely that the prodigy is going to stop anytime soon. His smiles are contagious and the smile on BJP leaders’ faces after every win is a disease bestowed upon them by Rahul. But sadly, once again the BJP leaders do not give him credit for the same. They refuse to accept the greatness of the prodigal son of Sonia Gandhi. The day they accept this, probably Rahul will finally break into a laugh or tears, that day is still far away though, let’s wait for it.