In spite of the hurting late-afternoon sun and the hot sands, tens of thousands of people showed up on the Kozhikode beach to listen to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday.
Congress activists from across the Malabar region had started arriving in the city from mid-morning to attend the Congress rally which doubled up as the launch of the election campaign of the Congress as well as of the United Democratic Front.
Almost all the top-rung leaders of the Congress party in the State were at hand on the dais, apart from the first-line leaders of the Indian Union Muslim League, the second largest UDF partner.
Enamoured by the Arabian Sea, Mr. Gandhi could not resist the temptation to bring the sea and the waves into his speech.
Pointing to the sea, Mr. Gandhi portrayed his political bete noire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as someone who always spoke to the ocean. Mr. Modi, according to him, always talked and never listened. “All the last five years, Mr. Modi was just talking and talking and never listening. It was the duty of a Prime Minister to listen to the people and address their problems, and not keep on talking.” Mr. Gandhi ridiculed Mr. Modi's radio talk, Mann Ki Baat, which was always one-sided.
In contrast, Mr. Gandhi claimed, his party was an ‘instrument of listening’ to the people. And, it was the voice of the country. He recalled on Wednesday, he had listened to the views of over three thousands female students of Stella Maris College, Chennai, and in the forenoon of Thursday at a meeting in Thrissur district, he had listened to the problems of fishers. Every week, he also met mediapersons in Delhi and answered all of his questions. But the Prime Minister was not keen on meeting the press at all.
