New Delhi: Congress party’s vice president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Uttarakhand on Tuesday to personally see the damage due to the flash floods has kicked up a storm.
The BJP was quick to comment on how Rahul Gandhi flouted Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s advice to VIPs not to visit rain-ravaged Uttarakhand saying such visits created difficulties in relief and rescue operations.
"We advise all VIPs not to visit Uttarakhand now. All agencies are engaged in relief and rescue efforts and such visits hamper their works," he had said. Shinde's advise came on a day after when Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was visiting the disaster-hit hill state.
The Home Minister said if any VIP does not listen to the advise, he may not be given landing permission in Uttarakhand.
Is Rahul Gandhi not a VIP, asked Meenakshi Lekhi, BJP spokesperson. Another spokesperson Prakash Javadkhar said it was unfortunate the a senior leader of the Congress was flouting rules.
Party president Rajnath Singh played it safe saying 'nobody should play politics over Uttarakhand'.
But the Congress answered back saying the Congress VP is not a VIP but an 'aam aadmi'.
At the AICC briefing in Delhi on Monday, party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary categorically said that Rahul Gandhi was not a VIP. But she flew off the handle when asked where the 'future PM of India’ was when the tragedy struck.
When told that he vanishes whenever the country is fighting some big crisis, she angrily retorted: "You do not know what he (Rahul) is doing. What do you want? We should be telling you when he has his hair cut and such things? Everybody is not like that to publicise all petty things, when does he spit out, when does he sneeze," she said responding to questions on why does Congress party not tell what Rahul was doing on those occasions.
On the VIP issue, Chowdhary said: "Rahul Gandhi is not going there as a VIP. He is going there as a citizen, as the vice-president of Congress to oversee that the relief materials reach in place. Rahul did not say I am a Rambo and I did this and I did that," Chowdhary said, as she tried to make a difference between Rahul's visit and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's tour of the flood-hit areas.
"That does not matter. He (Rahul) is there and working," Chowdhary said. Party sources said Rahul is also expected to meet the victims during his visit. Rahul, who along with party chief Sonia Gandhi flagged off a convoy of trucks carrying relief material from Delhi, will be visiting the AICC control room set up in Dehradun to monitor the relief work being done by the party.
Opposition parties, mainly BJP, had questioned Rahul's absence at the time of the calamity and Congress spokespersons have had to face tough questions during the party's regular press briefings on the issue. Chowdhury said Congress works as a team and it is not necessary that all leaders visit a place together and hamper the work.