It is election time in India (do read up on a tidy piece on why Indian elections take so damn long in The Economist) and electioneering is in full swing. All the political grandees are touring the country, doing their thing, working up the crowds.
Now though India has a smattering of regional political parties that are larger than even the national level political parties of Pakistan, it has only two solid national-level ones: the Congress and the BJP.
So Congress’s Bilawal, during his tour of the South, made a stop at Kerala as well. Now the Communist-run province has India’s highest literacy rate. But, much like the rest of the South, they don’t understand Hindi. Even the educated lot within the region are more comfortable in English than they are in Hindi.
So Rahul Gandhi chose to speak in English to a Kerala crowd (again, because it was better than speaking in Hindi) and had a party leader translate it into Malayalam for the crowd. The fellow did a horrible, horrible job at translating the said speech. So bad was he at this translation that Rahul, with no knowledge of Malayalam, also figured out that the man was consistently missing his mark.
Then Rahul Gandhi went to another rally in the South. Same problem.
The videos went viral on the internet. Of course they did.
But the effect that they had on the viewers was something far different than other Rahul Gandhi gaffes have. They admired him instead.
Scores upon scores of commenters on the videos were saying how impressed they were by the fellow, who managed to remain cool and calm. Occasionally, he would be visibly flustered but even then, he used to eke out a helpless smile.
Even when the video was uploaded by BJP accounts, with “Rahul Pappu” in the title, and had added cartoon sound effects, the comments, some of them prefaced with “..even though I am a BJP voter…” marvelled at how the man had kept cool and calm.
——————
In a similar vein, another video of Rahul’s younger sister Priyanka Gandhi has also started doing the rounds. Ms Gandhi, who is also touring the country (she is said to have quite a star power) was seen with children who were supporters of her party. Not a rally, just her interacting with some dozen or so kids on her way from or to a rally presumably.
“Neem ka patta karrwa hai..” chanted the ringleader boy, with Ms Gandhi beaming at what she expected was going to be an innocent limerick. “Modi s**la ba**wa hai..” came the next line. Her smile turned into an open-mouthed shock, which she followed by an enthusiastic (if not angry) plea to the kids not to use such language. The political operatives flanking her, realising that she was visibly displeased, also proceeded to deter the kids.
Again, went viral online, with the netizens commenting how distinct this leadership is from the increasingly foul-mouthed politicians of the ruling party.
Good manners aren’t to be adhered because they make you likeable but because of their own, intrinsic value. But, yes, there is a political utility to them as well. Here’s to hoping the political class all over the world sees this and attempts to reverse the global trend potty-mouthed politics.