CHANDIGARH: Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi began his maiden tour of Punjab on Monday. His itinerary had everything from paying obeisance at the Golden Temple to watching a kabbadi match, a morning meal at a langar (community kitchen) to savouring authentic sarson da saag with makki di roti for lunch and a road show in Chandigarh to participating in a village fair at Patiala.
Aimed ostensibly at galvanising the party at the grassroots in Punjab before the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress general secretary is scheduled to touch as many as 18 of Punjab’s 20 districts in three days, when he would also listen to the problems of the workers and promote enrolment for the Youth Congress.
Citing “security reasons” Congress sources had previously ruled out his visiting the Golden Temple complex. Mr. Gandhi surprised many as a television channel spotted him in the Sikh shrine in the morning. Clad in a white kurta-pyjama and sporting a saffron patka, he offered prayers at the sanctum sanctorum and partook of the community meal in the langar building. During his 25-minute stay, he was surrounded by volunteers of the SGPC task force, SPG guards in civvies and local Congress leaders.
Mr. Gandhi’s visit to the Golden Temple is seen by observers here as quite significant in Punjab’s political scenario, especially after his grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, earned the animosity of the Sikh community for ordering the army action “Operation Bluestar” to flush out militants holed up in the shrine in June 1984. Since his mother Sonia Gandhi’s visit in 1999, Mr. Gandhi is the first member of the Nehru-Gandhi clan to perform a complete “parikarma” of the shrine.
Mr. Gandhi later paid floral tributes to the martyrs of the Baisakhi Day massacre of 1919 at Jallianwala Bagh and bowed to the deities at the Durgiana Temple. He later flew to Chandigarh, where a road show was organised near Hallomajra.
At Mohali, Mr. Gandhi made a brief speech about how he enjoyed the kabbadi match, which he watched quite keenly to imbibe the true “Punjabi spirit.” Congress workers organised impressive receptions for him at Morinda and Fatehgarh Sahib. Accompanied by another Congress general secretary, Margaret Alva, who is in charge of the party’s Punjab affairs, and Indian Youth Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, Mr. Gandhi’s cavalcade stopped at Baran village on the outskirts of Patiala for a traditional Punjabi meal.
Citizens of the erstwhile princely State gave him a tumultuous welcome. He urged the youth to take active part in politics. Later, he took a detour off the Patiala-Sangrur highway near Nidampur to participate in the Gugga Marhi (snake worship) fair at Namadan village.
