In his newly-acquired inimitable style, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has apparently junked the State Government’s rearguard action on infant deaths at the Sishu Bhawan in Cuttack.
Though he did not say so directly yet in an oblique way without mincing words he elaborated how a sick child holding a doctor’s hand (which reflects a patients’s faith in his docs) and his hand (also Congress symbol) asked to console his weeping mother. This handholding story of Rahul Gandhi, as elaborated to mediapersons outside, is loaded with political overtones.
Moreover, daring his hospital-call to be termed a political call, the Gandhi scion admittedly saying so of discovering the “spirit” of Odisha in his 20-minute walk inside the hospital also took a jibe at CM Patnaik for not investing in the “future” of Odisha despite having a long innings of over 15 years.
“Inside, I discovered the ‘spirit’ of Odisha where a sick child held my hand and asked me to console his mother. The child looked sure of his cure. When the ‘future’ of Odisha displays such confidence, the State Government in its long tenure here has abjectly failed in tapping this ‘confidence’ as an asset for ‘developing’ the State,” Gandhi remarked and added that the BJD Government lacks the ‘foresight’ in developing the State as yawning “gaps” are discernible in vital parameters of healthcare and education.
Delivering another political message, Gandhi laboured it to say that despite 15 years in power the Patnaik Government lacks the “confidence” to build the State as it failed to “invest” in “future”. Though only time will tell how far Rahul Gandhi’s political tour has impressed the public mind in the State yet interestingly the watch-out will be its would-be effect on the warring factions in the State Congress. Significantly, when Gandhi didn’t drop any word on ‘unity call’ during his interaction with mediaperons outside the Congress Bhawan, senior State party leaders have gone all the way in appealing to the workers-at-war on the ground. It is no open secret that the State Congress is a party of disparate elements even at the grassroots.
“Rahulji exhorted us to stay united and expose the “critical gaps” in governance to defeat the Naveen-led BJD Government,” said former State Congress chief Jayadev Jena. Even, RS member Ranjib Biswal echoed the same tune when recently there was a buzz in the Congress camp about his brother and Deputy leader of Opposition in Assembly Chiranjib Biswal leading a faction to the party’s Delhi durbar.