THE CONGRESS RAHUL WALKS AWAY FROM

SOON after Ramakrishna Paramahamsa died in 1886, S Vivekananda (then Narendranath Datta) began his Indian travels by rail, bullock cart, and foot. His travels lasted five years. Toward the end of 1892, when at Kanyakumari, he had a vision of 'One India'.

- CP SURENDRAN

From his pronouncements, it is the same vision (Bharat Jodo) that drives Rahul Gandhi 130 years later as he launched his march from Kanniyakumari. He has been on his feet for over ten days; walking is a tradition in India pioneered by Buddha, Adi Shankara, Vivekananda, and Mahatma Gandhi. It's a kind of meditation. You cease to be; you become the others you observe.

Rahul Gandhi is not an ascetic. If at all, he is the monk with the Burberry. But all day, he walks, a kind of Forrest Gump of Indian politics, a Lal Singh Chaddha among Indian politicians: he is different. Even perhaps a maverick. Who else would tear up his own prime minister's ordinance in full public view? Remember the ordinance that Manmohan Singh came out within 2013 that sought to protect convicted politicians? His party and the BJP put that act of acrimony and defiance down to Rahul's immaturity. Perhaps it was. But it was also in keeping with his eccentricity of character, his natural and almost compulsive need not to play ball.

The general naivety ('Pappu') associated with Rahul was reinforced by Arnab Goswami's interview in 2014, where his trusting nature led to his virtual slaughter. Nassim Taleb talks about the delusion of the naive well-fed turkey. The bird is taken care of for 1000 days. It is fat and happy. It believes the world is a lovely place. On the 1001st day, it's killed and is dinner. The Times Now interview taught Rahul Gandhi he is not universally liked, contrary to what he was brought up to believe in the great and elite household of the Nehrus.