File photo of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi (Press Trust of India)
The Congress wants to know why the media continues to highlight the absence of its leader Rahul Gandhi during the crucial budget session of Parliament, but has not made much of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's 10-day leave for naturopathy treatment.
"The media always picks on Rahul Gandhi. Why didn't you raise the issue that due to Kejriwal's absence, the Delhi budget had to be postponed? It has never happened before," said Ajay Maken, who heads the Congress in Delhi.
Youth Congress members and some senior leaders of the party like Mr Maken, Ahmad Patel and parliamentarians Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, staged a protest march from Jantar Mantar in the capital towards Parliament House today.
The protest was against the government's land reforms passed by Lok Sabha last week and now due to come up in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress opposes changes made by the present BJP government to the land acquisition law that its government had passed in 2013, and calls it "anti-farmer."
Conspicuous by his absence is Rahul Gandhi, who positioned himself as a champion of farmers on land acquisition. Mr Gandhi left Delhi on a sabbatical around the time that the budget session began. At least twice, Congress leaders have shared his date of return, only to say later that he has extended his "leave of absence."
Mr Gandhi is abroad to introspect, Congress leaders have said, but have not said where.
Arvind Kejriwal took leave 10 days' leave to get treatment for a chronic cough and high blood sugar on a health farm in Bengaluru. The timing of his break, coming days after he took over as Delhi CM, too raised eyebrows, but Mr Kejriwal did not go missing like Mr Gandhi seemed to do.
He was photographed at the health farm in various yoga postures and the institute provided details on his health regularly.
Mr Kejriwal returned to Delhi this evening.
The Congress said last week that Mr Gandhi, who has been gone more than a month, will now return only by the end of March.