ANOTHER ROUND OF KITCHEN POLITICS FOR RAHUL GANDHI

Dining with others is different from being part of the cooking process. Rahul is trying to leverage both. It's hard to predict whether it will fetch him electoral gains

- SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU

Last week, Rahul Gandhi visited the kitchen of Shahu Patole, a Dalit who is also a retired government officer and a Marathi writer. The two made a dish together besides making small and big talk. Patole was the cook in the video, his wife was in the background kneading dough, and Rahul stood like an inveterate cultural apprentice. It seemed the Congress leader was observing the flames of India's discriminatory food practices more than absorbing the fragrance of the dish or noting the foundation of its recipe.

This is not the first time Rahul has been inside a kitchen with cameras in tow. Cooking and food in recent years have emerged as the cornerstone of his cultural politics. He made a Bihari mutton dish and bantered about the 'masala' of politics with Lalu Prasad Yadav. On New Year's Eve, he made his mum's favourite marmalade. When he joked that his saffron opponents too could get some of the jam made, his mother sharply retorted, "They will throw it at us."

Very early, before the Tamil Nadu assembly polls, Rahul was with a Tamil YouTube channel trying out mushroom dum biryani. Similarly, he made an exotic bamboo chicken dish with Telangana women during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. As it cooked, he was told it was a delicacy specially made for a plebeian goddess. When it was served, his party leaders built a conversation around it. They said if they cooked and ate together, they could win elections together.