Now that the election fever is over, one thing that has stopped or atleast reduced is the comparison between the two leaders of the competing parties, Narendra Modi of BJP Vs Rahul Gandhi of Congress. All the while when during election fever, people/media would come up with any reason that can be used to compare them. Many of the times, these comparisons were biased and made only to highlight one of them compared to another. But this can said that people in general had already weighed the two leaders in their minds and that is the reason, we are seeing Narendra Modi becoming the Prime Minister of India.
One of the criteria that has made place in mind while comparing these two leaders is how did they dealt with the outgoing prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
There is a lot to talk about the Rahul's treatment towards Dr. Manmohan Singh. Starting with his act of tearing down the ordinance headed by PM in front of media to giving a miss to the party organized farewell dinner to the PM, he pretty much appeared a bit arrogant. May be, the first act of tearing down the ordinance could be a part of showing him as a strong leader. But, his absence from the dinner, really created a bad impression in people's mind. Worst part, it was discussed widely and many channels even mentioned that he went for 2 day vacation, post election campaign, to Bali. Now that is big.
If these acts are compared with what Narendra Modi did yesterday, it becomes really easy to distinguish the two leaders.
Now, because of late oath ceremony followed by dinner held by President, the regular formality of new PM seeing off old PM from 7 RCR, could not be followed. Narendra Modi, yeasterday, on his first day in PM office, out of busy schedule, took a never walked road and went to meet Dr. Manmohan Singh at his new residence. This visit was no where planned in his schedule. But this humble gesture must really have added few more people in his fan following.
This reminds me of the Indian Cricket Captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's gesture when he let the outgoing, retiring Sourav Ganguly to lead the team in the last session of his last test match. I think that was one of the best gestures made by any body towards their seniors. It unknowingly added respect towards Dhoni. Yesterday's Modi's visit was a reminder of the similar act and I believe that is one of the significant signs of a good leader.