Amid media reports that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was caught sleeping inside the Lok Sabha while the House was debating on Dalits unrest in Gujarat, senior party leader Renuka Choudhary rubbished the allegations saying that “how can anyone sleep amid such uproar”.
“How can anyone sleep amid much uproar? He was not sleeping,” Choudhary said.
She added that there are much bigger issues to discuss than debating over accusations that Rahul Gandhi was allegedly caught dozing off.
Television cameras showed Mr Gandhi's head lowered and propped up by his arm, his eyes seemingly closed.
Some Congress leaders told reporters that the 46-year-old was checking his inbox. "It's not a crime to check a cellphone," said Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
It was definitely a nap, said Mayawati, the Uttar Pradesh powerhouse and Dalit leader, claiming that Mr Gandhi's dozing off is totemic of his party's disinterest in fighting for the protection of lower castes. The Congress failed this week to raise the atrocities in Gujarat despite being the main Opposition party in the state and at the Centre, she said. It was only after she highlighted the issue in parliament that the Congress was roused into action, she professed.
Mr Gandhi's apparent zoning out of this morning's debate is particularly baffling since he is scheduled to travel tomorrow to Una, the epicentre of the Dalit protests in Gujarat.
