Rahul Gandhi conquers a few hearts in Dravidian Tamil Nadu

He came, he saw and he conquered - a few young girls’ hearts. Rahul Gandhi was a winner the day he spoke to girls at the Stella Maris college. They came away smitten by the performance of a ‘young’ man who talked to them as if he was one of their own age. They were bowled by his charm that seemed impressive enough for them to forget for a while that he was a politician, and a dynastic one at that.

My friend’s niece had begun her story with a long face saying a political leader was coming to her college to speak to them and that she was reluctant to go because she knew she would be bored by it. But when she returned that evening she had that sort of transformed look as if she had undergone an epiphany.
She came back convinced she had heard a future leader speaking to the gathering.

The young may be like that - prone to be impressionable. To take in the transformation like that in a young person calls for lifting the cynicism of years and years of suffering politicians. There seemed little doubt that Rahul had come through that day to touch the day’s audience with an informality of speech, a friendly manner and a simplicity of words conveying ideas that were not too complex.

Privileged his national initiation may have been, but Rahul Gandhi had been part of the pack for decades before landing up as the Congress President. His performance in a State that had gone off his party 50 years ago would have been viewed in a dismissive manner if not for his being pitchforked into being one of the contenders for the top executive job of the country. The feeling that something had changed was universal for those who saw Rahul in Chennai.

Having just come off a CWC meeting that tried to define the campaign path for him and his party, Rahul may have steered off briefly from the old “Chowkidar is a chor” refrain that has been leavening each speech of his on the trail. This speech to youngsters was, in any case, bound to be different because this was not
strictly an election campaign approach as much as a ‘get to know Rahul’ experience with the young voters.

It may have been no more than a college graduation day or Rotary Club chief guest kind of inspirational talk he was expected to make, but he made an effort to transmit the kind of “I am your friend” feeling he may have done well with in Harvard some time ago. The stress of not having to be overtly political seemed to suit his temperament. That may have led to the bonding that came through from the meeting and not just from the usual selfie moments with celebrities.

The young were bowled over with the fact that the informality of the meeting extended to the extent that anyone could ask any question of the guest speaker.
They could even breach the subject of the ‘Damad’ Robert Vadra and Rahu could put a sense of equability to it by saying Vadra could be investigated as much as he wanted the PM Modi to be investigated with reference to Rafale. The candour was disarming.

All of it may amount to nothing more than a good impression because Tamil Nadu is so far removed from the mainstream of national party politics that they all come here piggybacking on a Dravidian major to make themselves relevant. The State may at best play a minor game changer role in which alliance will be to the fore come May 23.

Even so, the national poll battle may be fought with a different kind of intensity in the upcoming elections as the State’s very identity seems to be on a knife edge post the recent demises of two titans of Fort St George.

There is also a shift in the dynamics with the addition of a large number of first time voters who will be viewing things with a different perspective altogether. But there is no knowing what percentage of young voters will turn up at the polling booths as there is no knowing how much of a factor young voter apathy will be.  There is always that sense of tiredness about the Dravidian duopoly as not to overly enthuse the young in the State.

Neither Narendra Modi nor Rahul Gandhi can be considered a direct influencer of the elections in Tamil Nadu. The south of India itself may be different from the national scene save in Karnataka where the Congress (plus JDS) and BJP stand virtually face to face. Tamil Nadu is even more unique as a national party breakthrough here stands the same chance right now as snow in Chennai. If the PM candidates still keep popping up here it just helps give us a sense of how high the stakes are this time around.