In a now widely shared clip from a public meeting in Puducherry, Rahul Gandhi can be seen asking students to address him as Rahul ‘Anna’ instead of calling him ‘sir’. The clip, shared first by the Indian National Congress as a candid moment, is from Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with the students of Bharatidasan College For Women in Puducherry.
In the video, when a girl student addresses him as sir, Gandhi replies saying, “Listen! My name is not sir. My name is Rahul. So call me Rahul.” The student then suggested ‘Rahul Anna’ instead, to which Gandhi smilingly nodded and said, “Yes you can call me Rahul Anna. That’s good.”
His gesture attracted loud cheers from the audience.
Gandhi began his speech earlier by emphasizing the importance of equal space and opportunity for women in society. “There’s absolutely nothing that men can do, that you cannot,” he said, addressing the large gathering of female students.
Gandhi then went on to interact with students and took questions from them. He managed to answer a wide array of questions ranging from reservation for women to importance of democratic dialogue.
It is during this interaction that the candid moment mentioned earlier, took place. The video clip has now been shared across all social media platforms and managed to attract positive responses from people everywhere.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi met with the fishermen community of Mudaliarpet in Puducherry.
Gandhi has been making such appearances in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the past few weeks. A couple of weeks ago, in yet another viral candid moment, he took part in a recipe video with Tamil Nadu’s famous ‘Village Cooking Channel’ on YouTube. The episode garnered more than 16 Million views and Gandhi was praised for his low-key appearance.