Rahul going to Uttarakhand not as VIP: Cong

Downplaying questions over the belated visit of Rahul Gandhi to Uttarakhand, Congress today said it was not necessary that all leaders visit the calamity- hit state together and hamper relief and rescue work.
The party also hit out at BJP for criticising the state government over the tragedy saying it has become an "obsessive compulsion disorder" of the latter to criticise.
"Rahul Gandhi is not going there as a VIP. He is going there as a citizen, as the Vice President of Congress to oversee that the relief materials reach in place. Rahul did not say I am a Rambo and I did this and I did that," party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary told reporters as she tried to make a difference between Rahul's visit and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's tour of flood-hit area.

"There are some people who have it in their habit to publicise everything that do. Had he been able to do this during Godhra, the situation would not have gone to that extent," she said.
She said Congress works as a team and it is not necessary that all leaders visit a place together and hamper the work.
Days after the flash flood tragedy struck Uttarakhand, Rahul, who was abroad, made his first public appearance flagging off relief materials for the victims. Party sources he is now camping in the flood-hit areas and will remain there at least tonight.

Chowdhary apparently lost cool, when asked why Rahul has been found absent during occasions, when the country is fighting some big crisis.

"You do not know what he (Rahul) is doing. What do you want we should be telling you when does he has his hair cut and such things? Everybody is not like that to publicise all petty things, when does he spit out, when does he sneeze," she said responding to questions on why does Congress party not tell what Rahul was doing on those occasions.
She also accused Modi of merely doing "shadow boxing" and "making posturing and preposterous statements". Reports had it that Modi evacuated 15,000 Gujaratis trapped in the hills during his Uttarakhand visit.
"Being a Rambo does not need brains and brawns we all have," Chowdhary said reacting sarcastically to media reports about Modi's rescue act.