Rahul charms Santiniketan on his maiden trip (Roundup)

SANTINIKETAN - Hailed as “Rahulda” and “Rahulji” by students, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Tuesday received a tumultuous ovation as he paid his maiden visit to Visva Bharati university, which was founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and had three chancellors from the Nehru-Gandhi family.

A free-wheeling question-answer session with students, much like his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi held, inauguration of an exhibition and brief meetings with the principals of various departments and senior officials marked Rahul Gandhi’s 98-minute stay in the campus.

Kickstarting a three-day visit to West Bengal, with the agenda of reviving the Congress ahead of next year’s assembly polls, the young leader got late by 40 minutes. The delay was caused because he had to take a detour via Panagarh as the helicopter allotted to him could not take off from Kolkata due to heavy rains.

From Panagarh, he took a helicopter to Birbhum district’s Bolpur - 200 km from Kolkata - where the university is located on the sprawling seven-acre plot christened Santiniketan by Tagore’s father.

Minutes after landing at the makeshift helipad, Gandhi jumped a barricade to go and meet some girls who were standing there, before getting into his car.

As the motorcade reached the Uttarayan gate of the university, he again walked up to the students cheering him. He shook hands with all and sundry, including the securitymen, patted some students on the back, as his smile seemed to broaden every passing minute.

Some students were seen tearing off pages from exercise books, saying they would take his autograph. Gandhi obliged many of them.

He then headed for the Uttarayan complex housing the Rabindra Bhavan Museum, and paid floral tributes to Tagore in the bedroom of the Udayan House, where the poet spent several years.

He then inaugurated an exhibition — “Three Chancellors - Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi”, that contained some rare photographs and correspondence of the three late prime ministers involving Santiniketan.

According to sources, Gandhi was overwhelmed to see the rare pictures and photographs of his great-grandfather Jawaharlal, grandmother Indira and his father Rajiv that were on display.

He also paused before a photograph of his father.

Gandhi later wrote in the visitors’ book: “It is an honour for me to come to Santi Niketan. Am very proud to see that the spirit of our founding fathers lives on here. Thank you.”

The highlight of the trip was the interactive session with the university students that stretched to over 75 minutes, from the initially scheduled 40 minutes.

Sporting a spotless white kurta-pyjama, Gandhi patiently stood holding a cordless microphone and fielded a wide array of queries on corruption, possibilities of his taking over reins as the next prime minister, the meaning of education, and moral duty of students.

He himself set the stage for the session, asking students what they understood by education. When the reply came, from a student of the university’s school, Gandhi put forward further posers on the difference between education and information, and their relation to knowledge and wisdom.

After getting some answers, he explained these aspects in detail to the students, who listened in rapt attention.

Gandhi asked the 1,000-odd students chosen from all departments to come forward in solving the problem of corruption and told a research scholar that those who try to find a solution to the menace receive almost nil appreciation compared to those who are vehement in their complaints.

Gandhi also promised the students that he would try to help them if they wrote to him with details of their projects. “If you feel that you have programmes, projects and solutions, then inform me. I will be with you. I will help you.”

He adroitly deflected a query on prime ministership.

“Becoming the prime minister cannot be the sole motto. There are so many ways you can serve the country. And serve well,” he said.

He also repeated his statement made in Kolkata last week about there being two Indias - one with all amenities for the rich and the other without the basic livelihood facilities for the poor, and urged students to help the deprived sections.

With the students almost vying with one another to put posers, nothing much could be heard in the din on several occasions prompting him to ask them to speak one at a time.

After the interaction, Gandhi walked back to the gate where hundreds of people, some of whom had climbed trees to be able to see the leader, called out to him and raised slogans of “Vande Mataram”.

However, Gandhi’s visit also triggered a controversy with West Bengal’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist students’ wing, Students Federation of India (SFI), questioning the disruption of studies and “unnecessary importance” given to the young leader who, it said, had no “locus standi” as far as the university was concerned.

(Sabyasachi Roy can be contacted at sabyasachi.r@ians.in)