Saturday: Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes a ride in the mint-fresh Atal Tunnel in Rohtang, igniting possibly the biggest online manhunt in recent memory to find out who he was waving at in what looked like an empty passageway.
The same day, a policeman grabs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra by her kurta, and the following day, Noida police apologise to her. In between, the manners nannies on social media cock their ears and catch an “untimely” giggle from inside the car that was ferrying Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi to the home of the brutalised and murdered girl at Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.
Sunday: Rahul takes a tractor ride in Punjab as part of the farm law protests, prompting a hawk-eyed Smriti Irani to ridicule him as a “VIP kisan” who “uses a sofa to sit on a tractor”.
Tuesday: If the entire institutional architecture is captured, then to say that the Opposition is weak…. That’s not really a correct statement. Give me a free press, give me institutions that are free and the government will not last, says Rahul.
Under the radar and away from the ruthless scrutiny usually reserved for those in power in many parts of the world but not in India, others have been spotting in these very same events something that has largely been missed or deliberately ignored by a large section of the mainstream media in the country.
These few, perhaps very few, band of brothers, probably unknown to one another, are saying that what they have seen over the weekend is making them want to believe in Rahul Gandhi, who the Right wing goes out of its way to portray as a loser and worse.
Some have been moved enough to write down their thoughts in black and white or lend their voice to such sentiments.
What is remarkable is that there is no general election in sight, there is no one talking about the possibility of any change of guard in the next four years and there is still no pronounced articulation that the majority of Indians want any change.
No one seems to be more aware of the ground reality than these admirers whose feet appear to be firmly planted on the ground.
“Now it does not matter to me whether the INC (the Congress) forms any government or not, whether Rahul Gandhi becomes Prime Minister or not. As long as he is in the public domain fighting for the common Indian, it’s enough. My country will still have hope, humanity and a future,” wrote a Twitter user with the handle Solitary Shadow and who describes himself or herself as “in a desolate world, a lone soul”.
The Twitter user says the picture of Rahul, hand on the knee of a stricken relative of the Hathras victim and head bowed, changed everything for a person who never followed politics.
“This was an image which shook me to the core,” the tweeter writes.
“Whether the whole event was politically motivated or a photo opportunity…, I no longer care.”
The person adds: “But for me, this was the image of just not that day, but of a lifetime.
"This is a man sitting in front of the father of a helpless girl, brutally raped, illegally burned, denied not just justice but also dignity, even in death.
"This is a man burdened with guilt of all humanity, shouting silently with his body posture for not being able to save her.
"This is a man asking for forgiveness from the father subjected to such a huge loss, injustice and torture… without uttering a single word.
"…All his actions now reveal deeper meanings and the course he's charted becomes clear."
The tweeter then says it does not matter whether Rahul becomes Prime Minister and concludes: "And so, I turned into a believer."
Indignant Right-wingers are certain to claim such tweeters are paid lackeys or stooges. But the fact remains that rarely has such words been written about an Opposition leader who does not seem any closer to power than he was six years ago.
Cut to Kerala in the south, where a community leader penned a note on what it meant for the country when Rahul was roughed up and pushed down on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border on Thursday. As MP, Rahul represents Kerala's Wayanad.
Basheer Faizy Deshamangalam. Sourced by reporter
"Fascist police shoved and pushed down not just a man called Rahul but the psyche of democratic India that questions injustice," wrote Basheer Faizy Deshamangalam, 42, chairman of Maneesha, the cultural wing of Samastha Kerala Jamiyathul Ulama, an influential Sunni body.
"This is not a political analysis to gauge the sincerity behind that effort. But, in the darkness, it is a silver lining that this man has become at least a symbol of those embracing marginalised lives. That young, sobbing Rahul who witnessed the passing of his grandmother and father has now grown as tall as our expectations," he wrote on Facebook.
Deshamangalam later told The Telegraph that he was touched by the manner in which Rahul, accompanied by Priyanka, defied the odds and ensured that they visited the Hathras family.
"The whole thing might backfire on him politically since UP and the rest of the northern belt are dominated by upper-caste politics. Even then, he took it up as a humanitarian issue," said Deshamangalam, who often comments on issues related to communal harmony.
Deshamangalam added in his note: "When Fascism dances without a care, this young man symbolises hope. At least let the citizens glimpse in that hope the promised dawn."
The note points out that "Rahul has been the butt of a lot of ridicule, then as well as now". But "those who joined the chorus did not realise how dangerous a game they had become a part of."
The note does not lose sight of what many feel are Congress home truths. "You soldier on, more or less like the commander of a one-man army. It cannot be denied that those willing to fight by your side are not numerous. Even if you lay bleeding in the battlefield, your defeat was an honourable one," Deshamangalam writes.
Asked about this, he said: "I regret to say that many in the Congress have not kept pace with Rahul Gandhi. I am afraid Rahul is riding the turbulent waves without much support from his own party. The Congress didn't even mount a decent protest in Kerala after Rahul was pushed down by UP policemen."
"The Congress has indeed made mistakes. But please do not destroy our last hope by piling relentlessly on his shoulders the baggage of mistakes. Not because he is perfect but because he is the best possible in India, democratic India should step forward to strengthen his arms and fight the battle led by him," Deshamangalam wrote.
The post was quickly converted into a YouTube video narration, albeit without the knowledge of its author.
Shihab Faizi, who recently graduated from an Arabic college in Kerala, lent his moving voice and soothing tone to narrate the Facebook post by Deshamangalam "since I thought it needed to reach many more".
"I was more than willing to lend my voice when my friend Mohammed (who runs a YouTube channel named Hanan Media) asked me to. At least, that way we did our bit to make it more popular," Faizi told this newspaper.
On Tuesday, Rahul himself explained why he thinks he is often at the receiving end.
Asked why Punjabis should trust him, Rahul, who is leading a protest against the farm laws, said: "Look at my actions, you will see that I am a person who, when I see some injustice is done, I feel for that person instinctively. If you see one strong man beating a weak man, automatically I am on the side of the weak. In fact, this is why I get beaten up so much in politics. I am also thinking to myself, why. But I have that inside me.
"If I feel injustice is being done to Punjab I will stand for Punjab, no matter what. If I feel injustice is being done to a Dalit girl in UP, I will go there, I will take two-three lathis, no problem. That is my nature, that is what I have been taught. I don't know any other way."
