Rahul derails Sena protest

Cong leader ignores Thackeray threat, travels by train in Mumbai

With Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray issuing a diktat to his party cadres to greet the “Italian Prince” with black flags to mark the party’s protest against his “Mumbai for all” remarks, Rahul thumbed the  nose at the Sena when he jettisoned plans to go to a slum in Ghatkopar by a waiting helicopter for his second and final engagement in the city.

On his part, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said Rahul’s visit exemplifed “Mussolini” rule in Maharashtra that prevented Shiv Sena workers from exercising their democratic right of protest.

He described Maharashtra’s Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan as “a watchman” for waiting nearly an hour and a half under a tree in Ghatkopar to receive Rahul and the minister of state for home as someone who “looked after his shoes”.

But unfazed by the Sena threat and in a gesture loaded with symbolism, Rahul, who was on his way from suburban Vile Parle to Ghatkopar after addressing college students, abruptly disembarked from his motorcade outside Andheri railway station on the Western Railway Line and boarded a Dadar-bound local train. There were reports that Rahul even used an ATM.

He travelled on the Virar-Dadar fast train in a second class compartment along with the general public much to their delight but sent security personnel into a tizzy. Rahul got off 15 minutes later around 1.15 pm at Dadar where he crossed a bridge to come to reach the Central Line from where he took a train to Ghatkopar.

He got into a first class coach of a Kalyan-bound train to go to Ghatkopar which is four stations away, a railway official said. Rahul also signed autographs for wide-eyed passengers who gushed at seeing him in their company. After a four-hour visit, Rahul left for Puducherry.

Rahul did not lose the opprtunity to send a loud and clear message to the Shiv Sena, warning people here against attempts to divide them on communal and linguistic basis.

“My father was born in Mumbai and mother in Italy. My great-grandfather was born in Allahabad, who also had origins in Jammu and Kashmir. I live in Delhi. Where should I say I belong to? I know one thing that I am an Indian and belong to India,” he said in an interaction with students without even a mention of the Sena or the protests.

Denouncing sectarian politics, Rahul told an audience at Bhaidas College that the Congress “stands for a united India. There are two kinds of leaders in the country. One who divide and rule and others who collaborate and take everyone along with the objective of a united India and move forward. There are some people here who are trying to divide you on communal and linguistic basis and Congress is against them.”

Protected by the SPG, 39-year-old Rahul was accompanied by newly appointed Indian Youth Congress president Rajeev Satav and party MP Jitendra Singh. This was Rahul’s maiden visit to the financial capital after becoming AICC general secretary.

Scores of Sena supporters were rounded up while staging protests as a massive security blanket was thrown over the city by the Mumbai police.

According to Mumbai Youth Congress chief Sunil Ahire, Rahul was slated to board a chopper at Vile Parle and land at Godrej Compound in Vikhroli to avoid any ugly incidents. But in a dramatic action, Rahul changed his mind midway. , Ahire said, outsmarting the Shiv Sena, to board a suburban train.