Tamil Nadu government orders probe into Rahul Gandhi event at Chennai college

CHENNAI: Two days after Rahul Gandhi wowed a 3,000-strong all-girls gathering at a top city college, the state government has ordered an inquiry and asked the management of the minority institution how it allowed its premises to be used for an event featuring the Congress president.
Directorate of Collegiate Education has sought a report on the conduct of a ‘political’ event at Stella Maris College when the model code of conduct was in place.

During the interaction, Rahul answered questions on the Rafale deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, NEET exams and Robert Vadra. Some of the videos went viral and TV channels hosted debates on whether it was Modi or Rahul who had a better appeal among TN youth.

Against this backdrop, director of collegiate education R Sarumathi on Thursday wrote to the Chennai regional director to hold an inquiry.
While the circular refers to newspaper reports of the event and doesn’t mention Rahul’s name, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K S Alagiri said Rahul was invited by the college students’ association as an MP and not as Congress chief. “This doesn’t amount to violation of code of conduct,” he said in his statement on Friday.

“State chief electoral officer Satyabrata Sahoo said the issue was reviewed and there was no violation as there was nothing wrong in conducting such events with prior permission,” he said questioning the rationality behind the probe.
BJP youth wing president Vinoj P Selvam on Thursday filed a petition with the chief electoral officer against Rahul for “using the campus of the educational institution in violation of the model code of conduct” and charged that Rahul had made baseless statements against Modi.