Video of PJ Kurien translating Rahul Gandhi goes viral: Ridiculing ex-RS deputy chairman done in bad taste, betrays insensitivity

Kurien is a 78-year-old and, at the rally, he was unable to hear Rahul despite training his ears on him. For Kurien, who is of a certain age and the situation was made much worse by the huge din from the crowd, his repeated failures to get what Rahul was speaking made him probably nervous and led to those errors that indeed were serious. Had he not been a politician of a rival party, the lampooning would have been a cruel attack on a helpless old man. A man who is just two years short of 80.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi with former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman PJ Kurien. Screenshot[/caption]She shone like a star earlier at Kollam and later in Thiruvananthapuram on the same day, but apparently, she was to reach Pathanamthitta by road. Instead of ensuring that such a critical task is taken care of first, the leaders of KPCC, clambered on to Rahul’s helicopter. A sensible thing would have been to ensure that the translator that worked best with Rahul travelled with him — not just in one constituency, but everywhere. In fact, other than in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, the speeches were less impactful because of poor translation.What made Kurien, and even the local leaders who did the job at constituencies such as Alappuzha and Wayanad, look lifeless was the highly animated, perfectly modulated and precise translation by Jyothi, a Gandhi family regular. Reportedly she first made a mark on the job when she translated a Rahul speech in 2011 and a few times later. Reportedly she won accolades directly from Sonia Gandhi for translating her speech in 2016. Interestingly, whenever Jyothi was on the job, the impact was instant.The KPCC leaders could have been less obsessed with themselves and thought about the logistics and gotten the best bang for their buck when their star campaigner was in the state. And the BJP and its proxies could have been more dignified in ridiculing an old man and his age-related debility.