While birthday boy Rahul Gandhi was incommunicado, Congress workers celebrated the day on Tuesday by distributing notebooks and clothes to the poor, organising blood donation camps and even a wrestling competition!
Enthusiastic party workers, anxious to celebrate Rahul’s 38th birthday, were only told that he was out of town. Nobody was really sure where Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s MP son was.
Though Rahul is believed to have given strict instructions that there should be no extravagant celebrations, it was nonetheless an occasion for party workers, especially Youth Congress activists in various parts of the country, to organise programmes to show their loyalty to the young leader.
No gifts please...
Sources in the Congress party said he had left directions at his office and his Tughlak Lane residence that even bouquets or flowers should not be accepted from party members. “He thinks that one should not waste money buying bouquets or flowers. Gifts are strictly banned,” said a party MP who did not want to be identified.
But most senior party leaders, including ministers, sent bouquets to the young Gandhi scion anyway. His friends, including the young MPs in the Congress, telephoned him or sent SMS messages to wish him.
Some Congress leaders expressed their loyalty by putting out advertisements in newspapers. One advertisement referred to him as “hope of the nation”.
Gandhi family loyalist Era Anparasu, who has been celebrating Rahul’s birthday for a few years, said he had printed some posters and banners wishing the young Gandhi all the best.
“My son Arul Anbarasu (an MLA in TN) has distributed food items and dress materials to the poor people,” Anbarasu said. The TN Congress Committee has included his birthday in the official list of functions to be celebrated by party units.