Rahul Gandhi interacting with protesting students of the FTII
Rahul Gandhi's comments during his interaction with protesting students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) on "mediocrity being promoted" provoked a caustic tweet from Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday evening.
This morning, Rahul Gandhi, the number two leader of Congress after his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi, met some 250 students who have been on strike for nearly two months over the appointment of TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of the institute's governing body.
The students told the Congress vice president that Mr Chauhan's credentials fall far short of the standards of the famous institute and is seen to be close to the ruling BJP.
Expressing support for the cause, Mr Gandhi attacked the BJP and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS and accused them of promoting mediocrity.
"You are taking somebody who is mediocre and putting them on top of people who don't want to be mediocre," the Congress leader told the students.
"The RSS and its ideologues are systematically promoting mediocre people in the system...they are hell bent on undermining the educational institutions' stature...it is not going on just in the education system but also in bureaucratic and judicial system."