00:00Dear viewers, look at this picture carefully.
00:02On one side, the country's most powerful industrialist, Gautam Adani.
00:07On the other, one of India's most seasoned politicians, Sharad Pawar.
00:11And right behind them, familiar Congress faces.
00:14Because this wasn't a business meeting.
00:16This was a wedding.
00:17The pre-wedding of former Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's granddaughter, Diyash Rauf,
00:23held in Mumbai on October 13, 2025.
00:26Now, usually, a politician attending a wedding isn't news.
00:30But this one came with perfect timing.
00:33Just 48 hours after Rahul Gandhi thundered from a stage in Bihar
00:37that Modi is nothing more than a tool for Ambani and Adani.
00:41That's the irony, right there in that one frame.
00:44While Rahul Gandhi was painting himself as the lone crusader against corporate capture,
00:49his own party men and alliance partners were literally sipping sherbet with the same industrialist
00:54he was warning the country about.
00:56Hello, I'm Tejas and you're watching Honest Take on Lokmat Times.
01:00Before we dive into this interesting story, you know the drill.
01:03Please do subscribe to Lokmat Times if you haven't already
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01:08Here is the thing.
01:09Politics loves symbols.
01:10And this picture became one.
01:12Because it captured in one frame the entire hypocrisy of India's opposition.
01:17You have Gautam Adani, the supposed villain in Rahul's speeches.
01:20You have Sharad Pawar, his senior ally, who apparently did not get the memo that Adani is untouchable.
01:26And hosting them, Sushil Kumar Shinde, a congress stalwart whose granddaughter's wedding
01:31brought them all under one fancy roof.
01:34Now you tell me, what does this look like?
01:36A social coincidence or proof that what is preached on stage and what is practiced behind closed doors
01:43are two very different realities.
01:45This image did not just trend.
01:47It tore through social media because people saw the contradiction instantly.
01:51Let's rewind to that Bihar campaign.
01:53Rahul Gandhi was on fire.
01:55Dramatic pauses, emotional delivery, the whole thing.
01:58He accused Prime Minister Modi of handing India to two businessmen.
02:02He said the nation's resources, airports and ports were being looted by Adani and Ambani.
02:08And that only he, Rahul Gandhi, had the moral courage to stand up to them.
02:12The crowd cheered, cameras rolled, clips went viral.
02:16But then came October 30th.
02:18And suddenly, that loud moral high ground started looking more like a stage prop.
02:22Because Rahul's words did not just collide with one picture.
02:26They collided with an entire pattern.
02:28A pattern that shows his own party and allies have been perfectly comfortable with the very
02:32people he demonizes.
02:34Now let's go to the Ambani wedding.
02:36But before that, listen in to what Rahul Gandhi had to say about the wedding.
02:39I said that I'm not willing to go to the wedding.
02:44Look at that.
02:45If you are a winner, Rahul Gandhi did not go to the wedding.
02:46I was like, man.
02:48So, Rahul Gandhi did not go to the wedding.
02:52Why did Rahul Gandhi don't go to the wedding?
02:55Why did Rahul Gandhi do not go to the wedding?
02:55Why did Rahul Gandhi did not go to the wedding?
02:59It was like, Russian man, why did Rahul Gandhi go to the wedding?
03:00So, what is that?
03:01I said to understand.
03:02In this matter, Narendra Modi Ji,
03:03it's his wife has been notre,
03:05and it's his wife.
03:06Why did that?
03:06You shouldn't think that?
03:08So apparently Gandhi said that Modi attended the Ambani wedding
03:37and thus he is the tool for the industrialist.
03:40And since Gandhi did not attend the wedding, he was the real voice of people.
03:45Now who would forget the Grand Ambani wedding in July 2024?
03:49Anant Ambani and Radhika Marchant.
03:51It was the social event of the decade.
03:53Bollywood, business, politics, everyone was there.
03:56The Gandhis of course did not attend.
03:58Their absence made headlines.
04:00Except not everyone in their party got the memo.
04:04Because Digvijay Singh was there.
04:05Sachin Pilot, Kamal Nath, D.K. Shiv Kumar, all there.
04:09Gandhi's alliance partners, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Uddhav Thakre,
04:13were all there with their families.
04:15All smiling, posing and networking like the anti-corporate sermon was someone else's problem.
04:21Now, attending a wedding doesn't make anyone corrupt.
04:24But when your party's central campaign theme is that Ambani and Adani are symbols of corruption,
04:29maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be front row guests at their functions.
04:33And this is not only limited to attending weddings or social gatherings.
04:38Chhattisgarh under Bhupesh Baghel welcomed Rs. 25,000 crore in Adani investments.
04:43Rajasthan's Congress government cleared Rs. 5,000 crore worth of Adani projects.
04:48Telangana was trying to do something similar.
04:51But then the high command hunter swung hard and the deal fell apart.
04:55If this is fighting corporate capture, I would hate to see what cozying up looks like.
05:00You can't call someone corrupt in Delhi and then chase their investment money in Bengaluru or Raipur.
05:06That's not ideology.
05:07That's convenience wearing the mask of conviction.
05:10Now, let's come back to Sharad Pawar, the man in that October 30th photograph.
05:14Pawar has never pretended to dislike industrialists.
05:17In fact, in his autobiography, he called Gautam Adani hardworking, simple and down to earth.
05:23He even took credit for introducing Adani to the thermal power business.
05:27In December 2023, Pawar publicly thanked Adani for donating Rs. 25 crore to his Vidya Pratishtan institution in Baramati to build a tech center.
05:37And as recently as May 2025, the two met again for two hours at Pune Science and Technology Park to discuss new investments.
05:45That isn't a secret friendship.
05:46It's an open alliance and a practical one.
05:49But here is where it stings Rahul Gandhi.
05:51When the Hindenburg report hit in 2023 and the entire opposition demanded a GPC, Sharad Pawar sided with Adani.
05:59He told NDTV that Adani was being targeted.
06:02NDTV, by the way, is majority owned by, you guessed it, the Adani group.
06:06So Pawar did not just break ranks.
06:08He broke Rahul's entire narrative.
06:11And Pawar isn't alone.
06:12Uddhav Thakre and Aditya Thakre, both part of Rahul's India alliance, attended the Ambani wedding too.
06:18Aditya even made it to the Haldi ceremony, all drenched in turmeric and cheer.
06:23Forget all that.
06:23Uddhav Thakre's younger son, Tejas, was even seen dancing in the wedding.
06:27Lalu Prasad Yadav showed up as well.
06:29Flew in one chartered plane reportedly arranged by the Ambani's, while still technically on medical bail.
06:35Akhilesh Yadav came with dimple Yadav.
06:37Mamata Banerjee also attended, later calling it a social courtesy.
06:41You see the pattern?
06:42Every time there is a billionaire celebration, the same leaders who scream about inequality and capitalism somehow find themselves at the buffet table.
06:51But when the cameras are on, they put on the mask again.
06:54The mask of moral outrage.
06:56So what does this tell us?
06:58Two possibilities.
06:59And neither flatters Rahul Gandhi.
07:01Option 1.
07:02He doesn't have control over his own party or allies.
07:05They don't care what he says, because they know it's just talk.
07:08And option 2.
07:10He knows it is just talk.
07:12And everyone is in on the performance.
07:14Either way, this isn't politics of conviction.
07:16It is politics of optics.
07:18Remember, even Sonia Gandhi met Mukesh Ambani at 10th Janpat before the 2024 wedding.
07:23Privately, of course.
07:24So the boycott looked more like a PR stunt than a moral stand.
07:28And now, one year later, that entire facade has crumbled, thanks to a single wedding photograph.
07:33The reason this photograph exploded wasn't because it showed Adani and Pawar at a function.
07:38It is because it came just two days after Rahul Gandhi's latest raid.
07:43He was calling Modi a puppet of billionaires, while his own senior ally was shaking hands
07:48with one of them at a Congress-connected wedding.
07:52You can't write satire better than that.
07:54And it wasn't some secret shot.
07:56It was taken openly, shared widely.
07:58Because in their world, this isn't even considered embarrassing anymore.
08:02That's the scariest part.
08:03When hypocrisy becomes so normal, leaders stop pretending to hide it.
08:07Let's connect the dots.
08:09Rahul Gandhi attacks Ambani and Adani.
08:11His party leaders attend their weddings.
08:13His alliance partners pose for photos with them.
08:16Congress states welcome their money.
08:18And his senior ally, Sharad Pawar, calls Adani a friend.
08:21So when Rahul says Modi works for Adani and Ambani, the question writes itself, who do your people
08:29work for?
08:30Because hypocrisy isn't just bad optics, it is bad politics.
08:33Voters may forget speeches, but they never forget pictures.
08:37And that October 30th photo, Adani smiling beside Pawar, might just haunt Rahul Gandhi's
08:42moral brand for a long time.
08:44To be clear, there is nothing wrong with industrialists attending weddings or funding universities.
08:49The problem isn't the handshake, it's the hypocrisy that follows it.
08:54When you build your entire political brand on opposing crony capitalism, you can't then
08:58party with the same cronies and expect people not to notice.
09:02Either you believe what you say or you are just saying what people want to hear.
09:07And right now, Rahul Gandhi's words and his ecosystem's actions couldn't be further apart.
09:12What this photo really exposes is a deeper problem within the opposition, the lack of ideological
09:17spine.
09:18So here is my honest take.
09:20If Rahul Gandhi truly believes Adani and Ambani are symbols of India's inequality, why does
09:26he tolerate their company at his own party's celebrations?
09:29Why does he share an alliance with leaders who publicly defend them, partner with them
09:34or take their donations?
09:36And most importantly, how long can he keep pretending this contradiction doesn't exist?
09:41Because here is the truth.
09:43It's not the BJP that made Rahul Gandhi look weak this week.
09:46It's that one photo from a Mumbai wedding where the mask slipped and the script collapsed.
09:52And when voters see that photo, they don't need a political analysis.
09:56They just need a caption.
09:58Rahul preaches his allies party.
10:00Until that changes, no speech, no slogan and no yatra can convince people that Rahul Gandhi's
10:06fight is real because honesty isn't a strategy, it's a habit and that, it seems, is still missing
10:13from India's opposition playbook.
10:14That's all for today's honest take.
10:16With me, Tejas, for more such unfiltered takes, subscribe to Lokman Times and keep watching
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