Rahul

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct. 8: If you think Rahul Gandhi is a great “guy” or a jolly good “chap”, keep it to yourself.

Especially, never dare call him a changathy — which roughly means “pal” or “friend” in Malayalam and is a bit like “dada” in Bengali — as an assistant commissioner of police in Kozhikode is finding out to his cost.

“Has this changathy nothing else to do in the middle of the night; and where is he located… what’s he doing there?” C.M. Pradeep Kumar had asked irritably, using a colloquial term common in the Malabar region.

Kumar, who was about to retire after a day’s vigil in connection with Rahul’s visit, had just been told the VIP had slipped out of the government guesthouse and had gone to a hotel in downtown Kozhikode. Unfortunately for the officer, the wireless set was on during his exasperated reaction.

His supposedly casual aside is now the subject of a high-level police probe, with additional director-general Mahesh Kumar Singla having called for a report from the Kozhikode city commissioner.

Youth Congress activists today marched to Kumar’s office demanding action against him for “insulting” the All-India Congress Committee general secretary. The mob left only after police used force.

The pro-CPM Democratic Youth Federation of India has said it would oppose any action against the honest officer.

The views of Shashi Tharoor, who used the expression “holy cow” on Twitter to apparently refer to unnamed Congress higher-ups, are not known but he must be thanking his stars he doesn’t speak on the wireless.

Kumar was not available for comment, either, but his colleagues did not find anything wrong in his use of what they saw as a harmless local slang to refer to Rahul on the confidential communication network.

Rahul, who has been wearing jeans and shirts for better vibes as he scours Kerala’s campuses to recruit for the Congress’s youth and student wings, had left the guesthouse last night and headed for Hotel Paragon at the city centre for a taste of its famous seafood and Malabar chapattis.

He had earlier claimed at a morning news conference in Thiruvananthapuram that he was not in the habit of breaching his security arrangements. He was replying to a question on his recent austerity-powered train journey, which had allegedly upset his security officials.

But even before the visit to Hotel Paragon, Rahul had made an unscheduled stop by a roadside teashop while returning from Ferule College.

The police were a little concerned when they were asked to prepare for Rahul’s visit to the hotel, located under an overbridge.

In April 2007, a Kerala police officer was transferred after referring to defence minister A.K. Antony as kullan (shorty) on the wireless.