In the midst of all the election panorama, there is usually one incident that grips the heart in a deeper dimension and this picture did it for most! This is the man, the one who says it and does it.
Elections campaigns are fiery, murky, angry, passionate, and unpredictable. It is strange that during these times, even if a political leader falls sick, one thinks they are faking it for votes, or if one utters a word, it is blow out of proportion.
Buried in the busyness of the election, Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader took umpteen golden moments to reach out personally to the masses. In Kerala, he stopped his entourage and took flowers from a delighted little girl waiting by the wayside for his car to pass, stopped by and drank tea with anxious workers and listened to their problems to work out solutions for them, sat on straw-matted floors, ate lunch with them, hugged old raisin-wrinkled men and women and listened with empathy to their woes helping them out in practical ways. He delivered what he promised to them, it was a matter of word of honor.
Rahul Gandhi, normally identified as the man born with a silver spoon in his mouth who sailed through galaxies of glamour and glaze had seen it all, so why should he care. In reality, he is born with compassion even if he lives like a prince. His heart readily catches the plight of the poor. Kindness is a natural inborn trait in him, so he is very easily drawn to the penurious masses. Fascinated with their simple lives, so different from his own, he loves to sit and talk to them.
He joined the demonetization line to talk to the masses standing there and get a peek into their thoughts in that situation; walked into a movie hall to sit with the masses, was the first to reach and save a photographer when falling down a flight of stairs. When his plane had a technical glitch and nearly crashed, he was the one comforting the crew. There are some things you cannot fake in life, certainly not in the face of death.
One cannot call it an election gimmick because it is natural goodness in the man. He sat in a movie hall just to identify with citizens who watch movies and get a glimpse into their daily lives. He is the man that insists that the poor farmers and others get their money transferred directly into their bank accounts to put money into the system without it getting trapped by other grabbing agencies. Somehow over these last years, with all the schemes, the poor and middle section never saw the money that was promised because it got lost in the “system.”
He secretly helped Nirbhaya’s brother fulfill his dreams of becoming a pilot and did not want anyone to know about it. I guess this kind of integrity and greatness is hard to find.
Somehow, in this election, there is hope that the “good man” will win to save the needy and helpless. Right now, India needs it.
Also Read: Bengal polls violence erupts 3rd phase, 2 killed, 5 injured