Rahul’s outburst: A watershed moment in Indian politics?

Barely two days before his outburst against the UPA government’s ordinance to counter a Supreme Court order disqualifying MPs and MLAs convicted in a criminal case, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi‘s body language had become a talking point among Pune’s editors and senior journalists. Rather unusually, Gandhi had held a 90-minutue long informal exchange with a select group of journalists at the Balewadi stadium in Pune. This was the second leg of his Maharashtra tour and Gandhi took everyone by surprise, especially the top editors in Delhi, who later came to know that he had spoken extensively and informally on a range of subjects. The issue of the controversial ordinance came up during that chat with journalists and Mr Clean’s cryptic response amply indicated that he disagreed with the government’s position. On hindsight, it was disappointing that none of the assembled journalists asked him about his brother-in-law Robert Vadra‘s controversial land deals in Haryana, especially as Gandhi seemed to be in a mood to talk.