Expert Chat: Discover this Rahul, crowd is not votes

DISCOVER RAHUL: Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi is on Discover India tour since March 7.

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Keywords: Elections, Discover India

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on March 7 started his ‘Discover India’ tour from Orissa—a tour which seems like campaigning for the next general elections.

The Congress says Rahul is trying to connect with the country, but will his tour have any impact on the electorate? IBNLive readers asked this to Pallavi Ghosh, CNN-IBN’s Chief Political Correspondent, in a web chat on Wednesday. (Excerpts from the chat. )

Sunil Kumar: We have seen Rahul many a times in Parliament sitting aloof and not participating in discussions. Do you think he is really interested in state of the nation? I feel he should have been playing pro-active role in party and policy making.

Pallavi Ghosh: I absolutely agree. He needs to be heard more in Parliament.

Sunaina: What are his lapses?

Pallavi Ghosh: He follows the book. He lacks fire in his belly. He needs to connect with people more, and being in public life he has to be a good orator

Prasanna: Don’t you think that journalists should atleast assume a facade of neutrality while reporting? Even within CNN-IBN’s editorial bias for the Congress (in my assessment which could well be wrong) is it possible to adopt a more nuanced reporting style that does not reek of obvious bias?

Pallavi Ghosh: I have never been told by my bosses to follow a line. What we all do is question everything. Why do we presume that a journalist has always to criticise? Objectivity also means appreciating. I don't think the Congress is perfect, but I certainly think our PM is a good man, who is not being able to do what he wants to.

Soum: Do you think Rahul’s disappearance from a guesthouse for four hours in the evening in a Naxalite-affected area was a part of conspiracy to defame the Orissa government and a ploy to cancel the tour as the campaign has failed to generate any impact on public?

Pallavi Ghosh: No, I don't think. I think his managers wanted the media not to know about it. We didn't for at least 24 hours.

Ramprasad: How best he is when he talking to poor people? The words are coming from mouth or really from heart the way he is expressing.

Pallavi Ghosh: I really think he means every word he says to them. When he is away from camera, and just speaking to them, he is animated and really interested.

Debasis: It seems CNN-IBN does not have any news except following politicians. This is my sincere request to all news channels to concentrate on problems of common man. We don’t have any interest to know what these politicians are doing.

Pallavi Ghosh: We follow politicians because they could be harbingers of change and improvement. That they often are not is of human interest to us.

Manjunath: Your channel is obsessed with Sonia, Rahul and the Congress. How come you always show Congress in positive light but not the BJP? It happened during Gujarat elections with much venom and you still want to continue it unabatedly.

Pallavi Ghosh: There were some issues in Gujarat which we needed to highlight in our Gujarat coverage, like the missing child Parzania and justice for riot victims. We had to criticise Narendra Modi because there were serious lapses there. But when he won, we did concede the power of the man to bounce back.

Aditya: Why is CNN-IBN obsessed with the Congress and Gandhi family?. Why are you so intolerant of the BJP and its Hindutva campaign?