NEW DELHI, Jan 9: The former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he had “killed Rahul Gandhi” and was not bothered about his image, emphasising that the Bharat Jodo Yatra should not be about Rahul Gandhi and his image.
“Rahul Gandhi is in your mind. I have killed him. He is not there. Not in my mind at all. He’s gone. Gone,” the Congress leader told journalists in Haryana during the course of his Bharat Jodo Yatra. The response was to a question he was asked by a journalist how the Yatra had changed his image.
“The person you are looking at is not Rahul Gandhi. You can see him. You don’t understand it…Read Hindu scriptures. Read about Shiv-ji (Lord Shiva), you will understand. Don’t be shocked. Rahul Gandhi is in your head, not mine. He is in the BJP’s head, not mine,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Addressing the journalist who had asked him the question, he said: “Why are you looking so shocked? I have nothing to do with image, I have no interest in image. You can assign me whatever image you want – good or bad.”
Back in November, he had made similar comments while suggesting that the campaign is not about him at all. “I let go of Rahul Gandhi years ago. Rahul Gandhi is on your mind, not mine. Understand. Try and understand. (on hearing applause) See, someone is clapping. Do you understand? One person has understood. This is the philosophy of your country. Understand it, it will be good for you,” he said.
A journalist had asked him to describe what perspective “Rahul Gandhi” was gaining from the people of India during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. At the time, the comments about “letting go of Rahul Gandhi” were seen by many to align with his refusal to return to the post of Congress president, which he quit in 2019 after back-to-back election defeats to the BJP.
In the middle of his Yatra, which began in September, weeks before the Congress president election, he firmly disassociated himself from the contest and asserted that he was not in the running for the top post.
(Manas Dasgupta)
