Train to Punjab: Rahul travels in general class to meet farmers

CHANDIGARH: Five years after he boarded a suburban train in Mumbai to show his common touch — the ability to get on with ordinary people — Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi boarded the general compartment of Sachkhand Express on Tuesday on a “mission” to help distressed farmers of Punjab.
Wearing a brown T-shirt and jeans, Rahul boarded the general bogie of train number 12715 from Nanded Sahib to Golden Temple in New Delhi, much to the surprise of 70-odd passengers inside.
As he jumped on to the train, there was frenzy for several minutes as amused passengers offered him a seat. Rahul took one next to the window.
“I am going to your state to find the situation of farmers and their unpicked wheat in markets in Khanna and Sirhind,” Rahul told co-passengers.
Most of them were Sikh pilgrims returning from Takht Nanded Sahib, one of the five sacred gurdwaras. In no time, fruit, biscuits and home-made chapatis were offered to him. Kettles were opened and tea poured into plastic cups. He drank with the passengers, who wasted no time in taking selfies with him.
At every halt, Panipat, Karnal and Kurukshetra, excited passengers rushed to fetch a variety of local snacks for Rahul, who readily obliged.
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“Many of them even phoned their relatives to arrive at the station with a bowl of rice and some vegetables. He ate black chana, green peas and some curd with one Maninder Singh from Beas,” said a railway staff.
As the Gandhi scion took one kid in his arms, passengers casually asked him questions about his marriage plans. Smiling it aside, Rahul moved around and chatted with them, making polite inquiries about the gurdwara’s historical importance, their farming equipment, and prospects of crop diversification. He also signed on an autograph-seeking girl’s hand.
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Rahul reached Ambala in the evening, from where he drove to the grain markets in Fategarh Sahib district.
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In 2010, Rahul had taken a Mumbai local train from Andheri to Dadar when the Marathi vs migrant issue was hogging the headlines.