It was just before 4 pm Wednesday, when the TV channels announced the much-anticipated news. Finally, ‘#RahulResigns’ said Times Now, which could not resist adding, “after sulking for several days”.
Almost simultaneously, Rahul Gandhi tweeted a four-page letter, which contained his resignation as the Congress president.
“At the moment”, India Today claimed, he “officially resigns” – is there any other way? “Quitting drama ends… Gandhi falls on sword…,” it added. Huh?
Mercifully, CNN-News18 called it out straight – “Rahul Gandhi quits”, while News X added that he “confirms his resignation”— just in case anyone thought this was a practical joke.
Also read: Rahul Gandhi made 3 big mistakes in politics and didn’t learn much from them
Any such hope or dismay, depending on the point of view, was dismissed once DD News pounced on the news – not without some alacrity – and announced Rahul Gandhi’s resignation. DD News is usually the last one to announce anything, so if it got here so fast, it had to be true.
News X subjected us to a needless and rather nonsensical rhyme – “Congress implores, Rahul deplores” – and then discussed his possible successors.
Republic simply wrote “Rahul resigns”, and then rolled out not one, not two but four of its correspondents to discuss the implications of his move: “ …in 90 days, Congress will break up,” announced one of them, barely able to contain his glee.
Across news channels, it was treated like an ‘aha’ moment – as in, ‘aha, he has actually done what he said he would do…’. And, there was a sense of excitement, if not unconcealed satisfaction, that ‘Gandhigiri’, as India Today called it, was over. At least for Wednesday.
Zee News was clearly celebrating. “The end of the Rahul era in the Congress!” it proclaimed – note the exclamation mark. Its anchor then read between the lines of his resignation, interpreting his meaning as he went along reading it. He wondered how Rahul Gandhi was making excuses for the Congress’ defeat by blaming the PM and the RSS.
The correspondent clarified that this was not the end of the Gandhi family’s hold over the Congress as a leader of their choice would take over as the next Congress president.
ABP also read out passages from Rahul Gandhi’s letter as did Aaj Tak where the anchor was visibly annoyed by a line in the letter where he claimed to have stood “completely alone”. How can he say this, he asked, the party has stood by him in victory and defeat, what is the meaning of this?
Meanwhile, India TV pointed out a very important development: that Rahul Gandhi had changed his Twitter handle description, removing Congress president from it – so did News 24.
News Nation was so overwhelmed that the anchor’s words came rushing out of his mouth before he could even pronounce them and the reporter at the Congress headquarters was breathless trying to keep up with him, as they discussed what would happen next.
“Oh, Sachin Pilot is saying something, Sachin Pilot is saying something,” interrupted the anchor, eagerly: switch to Pilot asking Rahul Gandhi to reconsider his resignation. “But Rahul Gandhi will not change his mind,” yelled the anchor.
“Ab kya hoga Congress ka?” asked Republic Bharat. And so, the resignation drama played out.
Also read: Five takeaways from Rahul Gandhi’s open letter
One day earlier, at 3 pm, it was raining heavily. A delighted Samir and Naina coquettishly circled each other in the rain, drenched in red, yellow, blue and green that came down upon them in a cloudburst of colour. Such was the romantic mood on the sets of a TV serial, which Aaj Tak had visited to celebrate ‘Holi ka monsoon’ (Saas Bahu aur Betiyan).
Which is ironic, besides being rather inappropriate, given that only minutes earlier Aaj Tak reporters had stood knee-deep in water in Mumbai where ceaseless rain was ‘drowning’ the city in woes.
The torrential downpour that “shut down Mumbai” (NDTV 24×7) saw news channels flood the afternoon with visuals of “Mumbai monsoon mayhem” (Mirror Now). As the monsoon lashed “maximum city”, incensed anchors and reporters lashed out at the state government and local municipal authorities — “who is responsible for the flooding?” asked India News.
“Mudda garam hai,” observed CNN-News18. On ABP, BJP’s Zafar Islam certainly felt its heat as anchor Romana Khan, flush with anger, lit into him, asking, “Who is Mumbai’s Khalnayak?” When Islam tried to douse her ire by claiming drainage issues, she was beside herself: write in your next manifesto that nothing can be done because of the drainage system, she yelled, breathing fire.
Channels tried gallantly to help viewers experience the widespread havoc caused by the rains as reporters pulled out their umbrellas, pulled up their trouser-ends and pulled on their raincoats to withstand the monsoon’s onslaught on the city.
Finally, the award for the best headline in a very long time goes to CNN-News18 for “Rayudu retires ‘hurt’?” after the Indian cricketer retired from all forms of the game, clearly pained “over WC snub”.
Also read: Rahul tweets goodbye, Fadnavis takes monsoon break & guess who celebrated India’s WC win?
And why not? How would Congress, starting at the very TOP, have behaved if the BJP had LOST?