SERIES OF MISSED CALLS

How many meetings and calls will Rahul Gandhi miss? We were recently told how Rahul’s college friend Jyotiraditya Scindia left the Congress but not before he tried to reach out to Rahul, who didn’t meet him. Rahul, however, denies this, pointing out that Scindia was an old college friend and perhaps the only one who could walk into his room without an appointment. Be that as it may, there are others who didn’t have this privilege and simply had to wait it out. Or else walked out. This week, in an exclusive interview to Newsx, former Congress leader Natwar Singh pointed out even the late Sheila Dikshit had to wait for days before being granted a meeting with Rahul Gandhi. And when he finally met her he barely gave her a hearing. Something similar happened with Himanta Biswa Sarma, who eventually quit the party. Then there was the self goal in Goa (in March 2017) when the Congress lost the government, even though it had the single largest seats. As the story goes, well before the results were out, Vijay Sardesai of the Goa Forward Party was in Delhi with an appointment to meet Rahul at the Congress’ war room at Gurudwara Rakab Ganj Road. He reached the venue to find that the then Congress VP was running late and walked across to NCP leader Praful Patel’s house nearby, where he waited for almost four hours for Rahul, who did not turn up. His helpful host even dialled Digvijaya Singh, who was the then Goa in-charge, but there was no response. The Congress lost that government because, well, the BJP was just sharper on the draw. Sometimes, all it takes is to keep your appointments. And engage.