Rahul Gandhi gives lessons in Japanese martial arts at Kerala women’s college
- 22 Mar 2021
Ashraf Padanna
Rahul Gandhi began another round of election campaign in Kerala on Monday saying a silent revolution is happening in his Congress party with a lot of young blood being pumped in.
His first programme was at the women-only St Theresa’s College in the port city of Kochi where he taught the students some lessons in Aikido, Japanese martial art.
The 50-year-old who holds a blackbelt in Aikido took a bunch of students on stage and showed them a 'principle' of the art.
“I will tell you a secret that men will never tell you, women are much more powerful than men,” he told the cheering girls.
"There is a problem. Women do not understand their power. They do not understand how their power works and where their power comes from.”
“And that is the whole point of empowerment,” he added as the crowd applauded.
As he explained the limits the women have been experiencing in India while going out at night, one girl stood up and sought self-defence techniques.
The question came up as he was about to wound up the session without talking much politics as he was “not supposed to do”. He then called her onto the stage.
He demonstrated how one woman can resist being pushed by seven others using her energy to hold the ground, and said, amid laughter, that’s how Congress survives.
He helped the young woman get her posture correct as she struggled and sat with her on the stage demonstrating what she had to do. Then he invited more to join.
He asked them to push the woman who was on her knees to resist the attack. Congress shared pictures and the whole video of the interaction on social media.
He said a majority of his Congress party candidates for the April 6 state elections are new young faces and they will make the real difference this time.
Rahul and his sister Priyanka Gandhi have a hectic campaign schedule in the state over the next two weeks as most surveys predict a second term for the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Addressing a series of public meetings in Ernakulam and Alappuzha districts, he launched a scathing attack on the state’s ruling communists saying they were killing jobs.
The Nehru-Gandhi scion has been taking out his “soft power” to counter the macho image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his campaigners have built up.A fitness enthusiast trained in scuba diving, he had during a recent visit, gone fishing in the Arabian Sea and took a dive in the deep sea which went viral on social media.
He makes it a point to interact with people from different walks of people and even participated in a rural cooking show which also went viral.
During a recent campaign visit to Tamil Nadu, another poll-bound state on Kerala’s northeast border, he had also shaken his legs with some schoolchildren.
He also took a push-ups challenge with a young girl, and even pulled off a one-arm push-up, much to their surprise.
Attacking the LDF government in Kerala, he said joblessness in the state had increased under it and that jobs are not a reality but a dream now.
“Government's primary responsibility is to give jobs to youngsters, not to their own organisations,” he said referring to recent job scams.
“LDF govt here and BJP in Delhi have failed miserably. If you are a young person in Kerala, a job isn't a reality but a dream,” he said.
