Hazare visitor surprise for Rahul No meeting fixed: Cong

New Delhi, Oct. 18: Rahul Gandhi was left rubbing his eyes in disbelief when he learnt from TV channels that he had been “insensitive” enough to refuse to meet people after inviting them from a village over 1,400km away.

Sources said Rahul was shocked to hear he had not honoured an appointment with the people of Ralegan Siddhi, Anna Hazare’s village in Maharashtra, and that his “insensitivity” had made breaking news. He was not aware of any such meeting as his office had not given any appointment to the visitors. Congress media department chairperson Janardan Dwivedi said: “There was no consent for meeting, no appointment, no knowledge of their arrival.” Party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said: “No meeting was fixed and we don’t know who created this confusion. There is no need for a controversy; this is a storm in a teacup.” Asked what was wrong in meeting people from Hazare’s village given that Rahul liked visiting villages and has often spent the night in huts, Chowdhury said: “This is not a question of right or wrong, good or bad. It’s a question of schedule for a leader whose timetable is decided much in advance.” Other leaders argued “such abnormal pressures should not be created through the media” as it would encourage hundreds of groups to land up in Delhi to meet leaders every day. A six-member team from Ralegan Siddhi, led by sarpanch Jaisingh Mapari, had come to Delhi yesterday and declared that it had an appointment with Rahul. The confusion arose as the office of P.T. Thomas, a Congress MP from Kerala, had assured the team a meeting would be fixed. Thomas, who came in touch with the team during his September visit to the village, had asked the members to write to Rahul when they told him they wanted to meet the young Congress leader. So, they had written to Rahul seeking an appointment but got no response. Thomas apologised for the “goof-up” but issued a statement denying he had called the team to meet Rahul. The members included Hazare aide Suresh Pathare, who angrily declared the “village panchayat will now decide whether we will meet Rahul at all even if another invitation comes”. Playing to the gallery, Pathare demonstrated the sense of hurt of “common villagers” and talked of “ego problems” in the Rahul camp. Obviously, he was not aware that there are many who regularly promise people appointments and more with Rahul, Sonia Gandhi and other VIPs without any actual connect with the leaders.What riled the Congress this time was speculation about a “secret plan” dreamt up by Rahul and his team to establish a direct rapport with Hazare. But a top party official rebutted this. “There is no need for any dialogue or interaction with the Hazare team at this stage. Thomas might have gone to Ralegan on his own. Even Maharashtra unit chief Manikrao Thakre had not been authorised to visit the village.” For the Congress leadership, it was unthinkable that Rahul or Sonia would meet the team on a day the Hisar result was being “falsely credited to the Anna factor”. A senior leader said: “This is a strange phase we are passing through; somebody creates a fake issue and then the entire discourse revolves around it.” Party spokesperson Chowdhury reacted strongly when asked if Hazare had become a pole around which the Indian polity must revolve. “This is very unfortunate. Anna deserves as much respect as any other Indian citizen. We respect him for his age and there is acceptance of some of his views among some people. “But there is a larger responsibility before us of dealing with issues of governance and serving the people. Nobody should do any acrobatics to please anyone.”