Although Rahul Gandhi was not present with them, the Congress party left no stones unturned to shower the party's vice-president with a huge birthday celebration with the leader turning 44 on Thursday.
Rahul was not in Delhi and was traveling abroad, but his absence has, in no way, deterred the zealous Congress party to mark his birthday with much fanfare and extravaganza.
As sounds of drums and crackers filled the air around Congress President Sonia Gandhi's official residence and the All India Congress Committee headquarters; the most memorable part of the celebrations was perhaps the cake the weighed 44-kg, corresponding with the age of the congress birthday boy, the Deccan Chronicle reports.
Party workers were seen distributing saris among poor women as massive cutouts of the Vice President were displayed on vehicles and streets. The celebration came as a momentarily relief from the shame of the massive defeat Congress conceded in the hands of the monstrous BJP that stole the show in the recent Lok Sabha election.
Quite incidentally and bizarrely enough, as Rahul turned 44 and a 44-kg cake was cut, it gave Congress a cryptic reminder of the party's worst-ever performance in the polls, that could give them only 44 – again the same number – seats in the Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile on Twitter, the young leader's supporters and naysayers alike have been posting messages with the #PappuDiwas on his birthday.
Here are some very interesting comments, and a few even appeared to wonder if there was any relation with the occasion to Facebook going down for a few moments on Thursday for some unknown technical glitch:
A special gift to @BeWithRG on his 44th Birthday which he going to celebrate with 44 MP. #PappuDiwas This tweet with 44 RT and 44 Favorite.
— आप चोर हैं (@AapChorHain) June 19, 2014
On this auspicious occasion of #PappuDiwas, even Facebook is trolling us. #facebookdown — Abinash Mishra (@Abinash_2K) June 19, 2014
FB down and #PappuDiwas has any relation?
— Kashyap Lakkad (@kashyaplakkad) June 19, 2014
Even twitter hav more no of charectors than congress MPs. #PappuDiwas — SAGAR VARPE (@varpe_sagar) June 19, 2014
"Good one. @ItsEram: Facebook is down. Coz Facebook wants to meet and wish Rahul Gandhi him on his birthday. #PappuDiwas"
— @bhi (@Insomniac_Abhi) June 19, 2014
Due to Huge Bday wishes to Rahul Gandhi facebook crashed... #PappuDiwas — Bhushan w'khedkar (@struggling_er) June 19, 2014
Facebook's outage was a tribute to #PappuDiwas.
— s@ket (@iam_saket) June 19, 2014
#Facebook is maintaining 30 mins silence on occasion of #PappuDiwas @Rtejashastri @Shree03 @kamathneeraj @Arpithams — Chethan Mng (@chethanMng) June 19, 2014
Hey @googleindia.. Why no Google-Doodle for Rahul Gandhi on #PappuDiwas? Such a disrespect of India's greatest comedian turned politician!
— Alok Shinde (@AlokSShinde) June 19, 2014
Facebook Down and Mark Zuckerberg was astonished to see Pappu's Pappu Giri that he thought of celebrating #PappuDiwas on grand scale — Alok Srivastava (@india_cause) June 19, 2014
Facebook declared a holiday for #PappuDiwas
— Arnav Singha Mitter (@ASM_BJP) June 19, 2014