Continuing with his common man outreach program, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday invited vegetable vendor Rameshwar, who was seen in a recent social media video breaking down while talking about his hardships due to inflation, over a lunch at his residence in Lutyens Delhi.
Sharing his picture with Rameshwar, Rahul Gandhi said in Hindi on social media platforms Facebook and X, “Rameshwar ji is a lively person! In him, the glimpse of the affable nature of crores of Indians can be seen. Those who move forward with a smile even in adverse circumstances are truly ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ (India’s destiny makers).” The Congress also shared their picture on X and said, “Rameshwar ji had expressed his desire to meet the people’s hero. They met up.”
Rahul’s sister and party’s General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, too, shared Rahul and the vegetable vendor’s photo on social media with Mahatma Gandhi’s famous bhajan “Vaishnav Jan to tene kahiye, peer paraye jaane re, Jai Hind, Jai Bharat Bhagya Vidhata”.
In pictures of the meeting shared by several people on the microblogging site, Rahul and Rameshwar can be seen having lunch at the former’s home and sharing light moments during the meeting.
In the viral video, Rameshwar was seen with his empty hand-cart, saying that he could not buy tomatoes as the prices were very too high. Asked if he would buy some other vegetable, he said, “paise nahin hain” and then broke down. The video had gone viral and had been shared by Rahul Gandhi as well as several other Congress leaders to hit out at the Government over rising prices. After his successful 3500 km Kanniyakumari to Kashmir ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, Rahul has taken to spontaneous interactions with people at the grassroot level like vegetable vendors of Azadpur Mandi, farmers in the field, truck drivers, cycle market, gig workers etc.
In one of the rare moments after his interactions with female agriculturists in Haryana, the women folk reached Delhi in a hired van and dined and danced with Rahul along with his mother former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi. Congress sources said the second leg of the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ that is being planned from Porbandar in Gujarat to Aizawl in the North East will also be worked out in similar fashion to present the Rahul-led Congress in a new avatar as the party of the people belonging to the marginalised and impoverished.