New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) The BJP on Friday took potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over a bike and car engines analogy he gave at a university in Colombia to explain decentralisation of power, saying engineers from Harley-Davidson to Toyota must be “beating their chests” after listening to his “amazing engineering gyan”.
Calling Gandhi’s remarks “gibberish”, the ruling party also said if anyone who still had doubts about his knowledge would have them erased after listening to what he said at the event.
Addressing a seminar at the EIA University in Medellin city of Colombia on Wednesday, Gandhi posed an “interesting question” to the gathering: “Why does a motorcycle weigh 100 kilos and a car weighs 3,000 (kilos)? “To carry one passenger, you need 3,000 kilos of metal in a car if one passenger is driving a car. And a motorcycle has 100 kilos, carries two passengers. So why is a motorcycle able to carry two passengers with 150 kilos of metal and a car needs 3,000?” he asked.
Exhorting the engineering students present at the seminar to answer the poser, the Congress leaders stressed that his question lies at the centre of the transition to electric (vehicles from those running on conventional fuel).
Someone from the audience tried to answer the question but Rahul Gandhi said, “No. My question is, what is it about the car that requires 3,000 kilos of metal?” “The answer is it’s the engine, because it’s the engine that kills you on impact. Right? And the motorcycle is light because the engine disappears from you when you have an accident. Right?” “In a motorcycle, when you have an impact, the engine is separated from you. So the engine doesn’t hurt you. Whereas in a car, when you have an impact, the engine comes into the car. So the entire car is designed to stop the engine from killing you,” Gandhi explained, adding “The electric motor breaks that centralised energy system.” He said the “electric motor allows you to put the motors (used in conventional fuel cars) at different locations. So the electric motor is a decentralisation of power and that’s really its effectiveness”, he said, and asked the audience, “Right?” Playing an audio of Gandhi’s explainer at a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said with a smile, “From Harley-Davidson to Toyota and from Volkswagen to Ford, mechanical engineers must be beating their chests after listening to an amazing engineering gyan that he gave.” “Anyone who still had doubts about his knowledge would have them erased after listening to this,” Trivedi said, taking a dig at Gandhi.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya also took a swipe at the Congress leader over his remarks, saying, “I haven’t heard this much gibberish in one go. If anyone can decode what Rahul Gandhi is trying to say here, I would be glad to be enlightened.” “But if you are as amused as I am, rest assured, you are not alone!” Malviya said in a post on X, posting a video clip of Gandhi’s address.
Trivedi said Gandhi’s explanation of decentralisation involved comparing the mechanics of four-wheelers and two-wheelers but he omitted the role of gyroscopes in two-wheelers.
“In his video, Rahul Gandhi incorrectly equated decentralisation in four-wheel drive vehicles with two-wheelers, falsely explaining engine separation during an accident and equating it with components connected through bolts,” he said.
“It is as if Rahul Gandhi believes that everything in India will fall apart in a similar manner,” he said, quipping, “Such a person, possessing this so-called extraordinary knowledge, is invited from the Congress to speak.” He wondered why Gandhi is invited by universities and others to speak when the Congress has many learned people in the party like P Chidambaram, Abhishek Singhvi, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari and “even Jairam Ramesh”.
“There are many people (in the Congress) who are experts in their subjects, including his (Rahul Gandhi’s) uncle Sam Pitroda, who permanently lives abroad and has an image of an intellectual,” Trivedi added. PTI PK PK KSS KSS KSS
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