Farooq Khan/European Pressphoto Agency Rahul Gandhi’s speech at the Confederation of Indian Industry on Thursday morning, and the long, somewhat rambling question and answer session afterward, inspired an outpouring of appreciation, mockery and everything in between on social media.
Mr. Gandhi marched the stage giving free-wheeling answers that often contained unusual metaphors and never-before-heard parables. India, he said at one point, is not, as it is often said, an elephant. Instead, he said, the country is more like a “beehive,†which quickly spawned #Beehive on Twitter:
(Ms. Chopra is referring to Mr. Gandhi’s actual speech, rather than a comedy skit involving bees, like this classic.)
Mr. Gandhi also said “Indians are always complaining,†because, he said, they are “dealing with complexity,†unlike the Chinese, who don’t have to deal with complexity. The statement sparked some instant…complaints:
“Pappu†is a north Indian nickname for an innocent man or boy. On Twitter, hundreds marked their messages about Mr. Gandhi’s speech with #PappuCII.
Doing business in India is hard, Mr. Gandhi said, because of the country’s complexity. In fact, he channeled Frank Sinatra briefly, saying “All this complexity is good training. If you can do it here, you can do it on the moon.â€
Most were a bit flummoxed by that statement:
Despite Mr. Gandhi’s linguistic gymnastics, the speech garnered some praise, and even a possible new nickname for Mr. Gandhi:
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