On Sunday, the brave new Rahul Gandhi of Twitter shared a video of his dog Pidi with a cutesy caption seeking to answer who ‘tweets for Rahul Gandhi’. Putting a video of his dog Pidi, the Congress scion wrote: “Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I'm coming clean..it's me..Pidi..I'm way <sunglasses smiley> than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat!”
While a lot of awwws came his way, former Congressman and one of BJP's star performers from North-East, Himanta Biswa Sarma hit back on Twitter, reminding Rahul Gandhi that he had once preferred to play with the dog instead of listening to his own cadre.
He wrote: “Sir @OfficeOfRG,who knows him better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits 2 him while We wanted to discuss urgent Assam's issues.”
Legend has it that former Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had gone to meet Rahul Gandhi to discuss Assam’s problems but the Congress VP was busy playing with his canine friend. Disillusioned Biswa Sarma left and joined BJP who has helped the party come to power in Assam and helped manoeuvre alliances in Manipur to form the government.
After the incident, a furious Sarma had told former Assam CM Gogoi: “Rahul turned and started playing with dog instead of listening to us. After I came out, I told Gogoi that it would be impossible for me to continue in the Congress.”
Biswa Sarma would go on to describe Rahul as ‘arrogant’ and someone who preferred a ‘servant-master’ relationship.
In fact, Congress’ Gaurav Pandhi had once ever had the temerity to compare Sarma to the dog: “@bainjal you have to meet Rahul Gandhi's dog, so cute, anyone would prefer playing with him than listening to @himantabiswa. :) @INCIndia.”
The reaction of Congress members even now wasn't very becoming
BJP leaders also got in on the act.
In Congress, it surely looks like the race to being the his master's voice, to hide his goof-ups with snark and political naiveness, even as the master is busy playing with his dog Pidi. It is probably easy to give a makeover to a Twitter handle rather than making a leader accountable for his past mistakes. And it's no surprise that smart politicians like Himanta Biswa Sarma aren't willing to stick around for this second-class treatment.
