Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi are veterans in the field of embarrassing gaffes, and they could learn a lesson from Railways minister Piyush Goyal whose statement a few days ago has become the talk of the town. It all happened on September 12, while speaking on the country’s economy when Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had erroneously described the scientist Albert Einstein as the discoverer of gravity, whereas it was Isaac Newton who had discovered Gravity. It is obvious that Piyush Goyal had a slip of tongue, but just a day after that, he admitted his mistake on a public forum and said that he was trying to make his point across about how people should not get into the maths about the 5 trillion dollar economy dream, but where he should have given the example of Newton he mistakenly said, Einstein. Giving his clarification on the apparent gaffe, Piyush Goyal repeated Einstein’s sentence, saying, “We all get the opportunity to make mistakes. In fact the person whose name I took by mistake, Mr Einstein said and I quote ‘A person who never made a mistake; never tried anything new.’ I am not among those who is afraid of making a mistake.”
But Yesterday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi attacked the Union Minister where she used cricketing analogy to take a dig at the Modi government over the state of the economy, saying, to take a catch it is important to keep one’s eyes on the ball and have the true spirit of the game, otherwise one keeps blaming gravity, Maths and Ola-Uber.
She tried to take the route of sarcasm to get back at Piyush Goyal but it is the same Priyanka Gandhi whose brother Rahul Gandhi has time and again made a fool out of himself and his party men with his regular gaffes.
सही कैच पकड़ने के लिए अंत तक गेंद पर नजर और खेल की सच्ची भावना होनी जरुरी है। वरना आप सारा दोष #gravity, गणित, ओला-उबर और इधर-उधर की बातों पर मढ़ते रहेंगे।
भारतीय अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए जनहित में जारी। pic.twitter.com/3zqBnoIZYp
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) September 13, 2019
If the record of making the most absurd statements in public forums was to be under someone’s belt, it surely would be Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi’s younger brother. YouTube and social media is laden with Rahul Gandhi’s innumerable gaffes, all which are laughable and sometimes weirdly illogical statements and antics. These videos keep trending on social media from time to time and make people chuckle every once in a while. Some of his classic examples are when in his futile bid to slam the Centre, RaGa once told a large gathering in Delhi that Coca-Cola founder sold shikanji in the US and the founders of McDonald’s were Dhaba owners. After criticizing the Modi government during his speech on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi did something which can only be expected from him as he winked at a fellow parliamentarian. Everyone saw through the facade. If only he controlled his emotions for a few more minutes, we would have been impressed. Rahul Gandhi has also claimed to an audience that he shall set up a machine that could make gold from potatos among many other cringeworthy gaffes. During the Rafale saga, Rahul Gandi quoted a different number as the price of the fighter plane every other day and became the butt of jokes, but never acknowledged his mistakes. Priyanka Gandhhi is not really far behind his brother, she had wished Kashmiri Pandits on their New Year’s Day on twitter but instead of Navreh Mubarak she wrote Nowruz Mubarak, which unleashed a wave of trolls who trolled her mercilessly for her lack of knowledge. For the uninitiated, Nowruz is the Persian New Year.
Piyush Goyal is a lawyer and chartered accountant by profession. He has also been a member of the boards of big banks like State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda courtesy which he has a lot of understanding in matters related to finance. In such a situation, the seriousness of his remarks on the country’s economy can be understood. However, during the time he gave an example related to science in which he made an innocent mistake which he very graciously accepted the very next day, but Priyanka Gandhi’s sarcasm on this matter is absolutely incomprehensible.
To err is to Human, and for a public-figure to concede the mistake on a public forum and taking it on the chin is a trait of a mature, dignified person. However, it is a sign of foolishness of extreme magnitude not to admit your mistake even once, forget repeating it at regular intervals, something which both Priyanka-Rahul and the entire Gandhi clan have excelled in. Despite their regular blunders, the brother-sister duo has never once apologized to the public. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra needs to take a good, deep look within her and her family before making any joke on the Union Minister.