Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s outreach to youngsters on social media took a Gen Z turn when he launched an ‘Ask me Anything’, popularly called an ‘AMA’ session on his Instagram stories on Thursday,
AMAs is a popular format on social media in which people can ask questions and the creator can choose to respond to any of them through their Instagram stories.
Launching the ‘AMA’, Rahul wrote, “Students, Gen-Z ask me anything and I’ll reply to as many questions”.
This outreach comes amid a major shift in how politicians are choosing to engage with the Gen Z, particularly after the recently held student protest at Jantar Mantar that forced the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan as education minister.
Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Batman’ response
Among the several questions asked to Gandhi, one was ‘are you Batman?’, to which he had a cheeky response and said, “Let’s just say that no one has ever seen me and Batman in the same room together!”
He also shared a video cutting between him and the Batman to go with the answer.
On favourite politician, education system
Gandhi was also asked who his favourite politician is from the BJP, to which he just shared a photo of himself smiling with the Punjabi song ‘Gucci’ playing in the background. In the next story, he gave the answer and said that it was “definitely” Capt Amrinder Singh.
“I get along with him, he’s cool,” Gandhi said.
“He is an expert on military history, so I like him quite a lot. Hello Amrinder uncle,” he added.
Singh was a long-term Congress politician who also served as chief minister of Punjab. In 2021, he joined the BJP.
In one of the responses on his AMA, Gandhi was asked if our education system was producing “enough thinkers”. The LoP said that the education system was busy “destroying thinkers”.
“The USP of our education system now, especially since the RSS has captured it, is how not to make young Indians think for themselves,” Gandhi said.
He was also urged to support the student protest going on in Jharkhand over alleged exam irregularities. Responding to that, Gandhi said, “The student protests happening in the country are against the education system. I have said it clearly that our education system is collapsed, expensive, and oppressive. Every government must listen to students and take actions to change the education system, whether it is Congress, Union government, or Jharkhand”.
