On the eve of the second phase of the Bihar Assembly elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi struck a Gen Z chord—chatting with young voters and decoding their words.
“Can we call you Pookie?” one participant asked. Another addressed him as 'Sir.'
“Sir? Why are you calling me sir anyway? You said we’ll choose a name for you and now you chose such a boring name, Sir," Rahul said.
Someone suggested, “Bro is cool.”
“Okay, call me bro then,” Rahul grinned.
Rahul looked comfortable in a setting far removed from a political rally, surrounded by students who quizzed him about politics, elections, and even social media slang.
“We are Gen Zs. I’ll give you a few words, sir,” says one of the participants. “You need to tell me the meaning of the Gen Z slang.”
“Now I’m in trouble,” Rahul said. “Cap,” they say. “Cap?” he repeated. “Oh, does that mean lying?” he asks.
“Yes, exactly. No cap!” the group laughed.
Rahul nodded, “Ah, got it. Bro, I’m learning fast.”
The lesson continued with “rizz” and “cookie”.“Rizz is charisma, sir, that energy people vibe with,” one explained. “Rizz, okay, I like that. So, I need a political rizz?” Rahul responded.
The session moved between jokes and politics. A participant, playing the role of an “under-18 MP”, asked Rahul about election strategies. “Sir, this question is about tackling popular opponents,” the student said.
“For example, let’s take me. When they are newly contesting against me, it would be a bit hard maybe. So as underdogs, what strategies would you recommend so that people could tackle these popular opponents and then get the advantage?”
“I can only talk with my experience. I was told from when I joined politics that honesty is a liability in politics. You know, politics is a dirty game. Don’t try and be honest, it won’t get you anything. But what I found is that for a long time, when you are honest in politics, first people don’t believe it. But if you carry on, suddenly it becomes the most powerful thing. That’s my experience,” Rahul replied.
The questions kept coming. “So, the BJP is always talking about Hindutva. Congress is always talking about ST, SC and reservations. I also want a strong voter bank who will follow me. Should we also sectarise people like you?”
“Congress is not talking about SC and ST reservation. Congress is saying that the money of India should be distributed fairly. If you are a Dalit, you are an OBC, you are a Muslim, you are an EBC, you are a tribal, you should all get equal opportunity,” Rahul answered.
The discussion also touched on Bihar, where Assembly elections are set for Tuesday. “Recently, sir, I saw a video of you in Kashmir with business tycoons. Why don’t you do something similar in Bihar?” one participant asked.
“Because if I take five business people to Bihar, the government would destroy their businesses. They’d be very nervous coming with me to Bihar because the government would be like, okay brother, Rahul Gandhi has gone to Bihar, we’ll show you,” Rahul said.
When another asked why Bihar’s citizens should vote for him, Rahul said: “I think all of you guys should join politics. I think you guys need to change things. Because generations above you have been slow. And we need you guys to get in.”
In the end, one participant revealed she’s a classical dancer. Rahul smiles, “Oh yeah? My mother, when I was small, sent me to Bharatanatyam class. One day. In one day I was like, I’m done.”