This time it seems nearer to
reality.
This time, it looks Rahul
Gandhi’s speechmakers have worked more diligently on the background behind his
words to reflect his genuine love for the ‘potato prices’ in clearer terms.
Rahul loves to use metaphors in
his speeches. Like Kalawati, Girish and other metaphors, potato, too, is an
important (and recurring) metaphor in Rahul’s speeches to express his concerns
for the misery of the farming community in some pockets of India (in
non-Congress ruled states).
The concern found its expressions
yet again on Monday (October 7). The audience had had come to hear the Congress
politician during the stone-laying event of Uttar Pradesh’s first mega food
park in his parliamentary constituency Amethi being set by the Aditya Birla
group.
Being an agricultural event, the
ambience was apt to speak again using the potato metaphor to contextualize the
poor situation of farmers in non-Congress ruled areas. And he made good use of
it. He got the clear tab on the prevailing potato prices in the area this time (unlike
Amreli in December 2012) from the crowd and linked the low potato prices and
farmers’ misery with high ‘potato chips prices and the factors responsible for
farmers’ misery’.
Okay, if the potato is retailing
at around Rs. 20 a Kg in urban centres, the Rs. 10 a Kg price tag in a rural
area is acceptable. Might be it would be so there. So, Rahul’s potato wisdom
was more logical this time. Let’s see what he said:
October 8, 2013, Hindustan Times
“How much is the price of
potato?” asked Rahul. “It’s Rs. 10 per kg,” shouted someone from the crowd
while some others said “it’s Rs. 6 per kg.” Rahul thereafter asked: “What’s the
price of 1 kg potato chips.” As the crowd shouted it’s Rs. 400 per kg Rahul
said, “I know those who work hard in this chain get least (price). I want you
to get maximum out of this Rs. 400 per kg price.”
Now let’s see the improvement
made over his earlier potato references.
RAHUL’S EARLIER POTATO
REFERENCES
During campaigning for Gujarat assembly elections:
December 11, 2012, Rediff
Rahul got confused while
explaining FDI in retail at Amreli. He asked the audience 'What's the price of
potatoes?' From the dias he could hear people say, "Rs 3" To which,
he said," Potato chips are sold at Rs 10 a pack. So why oppose FDI in
retail?"The fact is in Amreli, the minimum price for a kg of potatoes is
Rs 10 at the wholesale market, and much higher in the retail market.
In a Farrukhabad rally,
the potato price quoted by Rahul came out to be Rs. 2 or less than Rs. 2 a Kg.
January 27, 2012, Business
Standard
“I was in UP recently,” Gandhi
told a gathering of around 5,000 at a public-rally in the border town on Tarn Taran on Wednesday. “There (UP), a farmer asked me
that when he was getting Rs 2 for a kilo of potatoes, why a packet of chips was
being sold at Rs 10. Can anyone answer this question?” he asked the gathering.
The crowd seemed least interested, and when no replies came, Gandhi said, “The
answer is FDI in retail.”
December 17, 2011, the
Times of India
“Surprising all, Rahul told
election gatherings across Farrukhabad and Kannauj that FDI would solve the
puzzle of a kilogram of potato fetching Rs 2 or less to the farmer and a packet
of potato chips costing Rs 10.”)
The Hindustan
Times
“A packet of potato wafers
made of half a potato is sold for Rs. 10, and you get one rupee for a kilo of
potato that reaches home for Rs. 10.”
From December 2011 to December
2012, for Rahul Gandhi, the potato price had gone up by Re. 1 only, and that,
too, from the paltry figure of Rs. 2 to Rs. 3 a Kg. Illogical, unacceptable!
So, from that trend, the potato price
of Rs. 10 a Kg from 2012 to 2013 shows a logical correction. It is more or less
acceptable given the localization factor of the place where the speech was delivered.
So, a good one!
Hope, we will see even better
rationalisation of Rahul’s potato metaphor the next time.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
