Dubai: From a lacklustre leader who once likened power to “poison” and was hardly visible in the political arena to a turbocharged, social media savvy politician willing to singe his political rivals, India’s Rahul Gandhi has come a full circle.
Gandhi, who saw his Prime Minister father and grandmother assassinated, took over as the chief of India’s oldest political party — the Congress — on Saturday from his mother Sonia Gandhi. The Nehru-Gandhi family has ruled India for most of its 70 years since independence from Britain.
A change in Gandhi’s persona could be perceived from the time he addressed the University of California in Berkeley this September. Instead of being apologetic about dynastic rule in India, he argued dynasty runs in every field in India.
Months later, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was about to touch down in Ahmedabad for a poll campaign, a Gandhi tweet went off: “Weather report: Ahead of elections, Gujarat will on Monday have rain of rhetoric.” Welcome to Rahul Gandhi 2.0 — unabashed, Teflon-strong and full of humour