Jalebi Ki Factory: Rahul Gandhi Continues To Show A Deep Disconnect From The Lives Of Everyday Indians

'Should jalebis be made in factories?', when I asked this to a couple of street food vendors, preparing the jalebi dough for their evening stall, they laughed at me.

To add some weight to my question, I mentioned the remarks made by the leader of the opposition and the Congress member of parliament (MP), Rahul Gandhi during the Haryana election campaign.

Responding to this, they explained, "Jalebi is a street food, it cannot be made in factories. How will it remain good for consumption for several days when it is meant for immediate consumption? There will be no taste."

The controversy around the idea of making jalebis in factories emerged from Rahul Gandhi's statement that he wanted the jalebis (of a specific shop in Haryana whose taste he liked very much) to be available across the globe.

"If these jalebis go across the country and the world, then maybe, their factory will have 10,000 to 50,000 workers. But they are trapped in (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi ji's chakravyuh," Gandhi said.

Since these remarks, many Congress supporters have gone on to justify that jalebis can indeed be made in factories and for suggesting so, Gandhi is a visionary leader.

However, as a common Indian, who has had jalebis at least once a month since childhood, from a local stall, the idea could not convince me and hence, I felt the need to talk to those who make jalebis professionally.

After getting laughed off at the first shop, I went to another, a couple of kilometres farther. There I met Vivek, who has been making jalebis for seven years in Bengaluru.

He explained, "If you talk about making jalebis in factories, this means its shelf life has to be increased and for this, you need to add preservatives, which are zeher (poison)."

"Why would you want to add zeher to an easily available street food, rather than buying it for immediate consumption?" he questioned but I was persistent in my exploration.

I cited that preservatives are already widely in use in our food and even Indian sweets like gulab jamun and rasgulla have been available as factory-produced products on shops' shelves for decades.

To this, he responded, "The problem with jalebis is that it cannot be reheated, neither on gas nor in the oven. Even if you do that, it will lose its crunchiness."

For those unfamiliar with the recipe of a jalebi, here is a brief description:

-A mixture of flour and ghee/oil is made to ferment

-From the bag, the mixture is released in the form of little spirals into hot oil and deep-fried

-The fried spirals are then dipped in sugar syrup and served

Vivek was right. A gulab jamun can be reheated, while rasgulla is consumed cold. Similarly, crunchiness is not a concerning factor in other Indian sweets produced in factories.

Yes, crunchy Indian snacks are also produced in factories and they retain their crunchiness in air-tight packets. But when you dip something into sugar syrup, its crunchiness cannot be maintained for long, even in air-tight containers.

That's the case with jalebis. Asking for factory-made jalebis is akin to asking for factory made aloo samosa or factory-made vada pav. Of course they can be made, but almost everyone would choose to skip them over in the shopping aisle.

But beyond culinary preferences, there is a deeper and graver implication that is drawn from the entire episode—India's leader of Opposition is completely cut off from the life of an average Indian.

Buying savouries and sweets from the local shop is an organic part of an adult Indian's life. Most people, this writer included, would know where the best jalebi (or other such items) are available near their home, their school/college, their workplace, their friend's place, their in-laws place. Most Indians would have waited in anticipation more than a few times in their life as the man at the counter put the jalebi or samosa in the kadhai containing the heated oil and took out the freshly-made batch after a few minutes.

But as is apparent from the jalebi episode, Rahul Gandhi has not had a chance to witness that all-too-common sight.

Admittedly, Gandhi did not have a normal childhood and had to spend his time under special protection. But that still leaves the question: can the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha be so oblivious and uninformed of the lives of ordinary Indians?

Take his claim that a jalebi factory can employ 10,000-50,000 workers, for example. A generous description of this statement is that it is a case of Gandhi doubling down on his ignorance. Items like that are made in the local sweet/snack shop. All over the world. There are fish-and-chips shops, stalls and carts in the UK, no factories. There are hot-dog restaurants, stalls and carts in the US, no factories.

It is unlikely that no one ever thought of factory-produced, packaged fish-and-chips in the UK. Someone must have. But this person would have immediately realised why the plan wouldn't work.

Leave alone a jalebi-seller in Haryana, even the biggest fast-food chains don't sell factory-made finished items. They produce/procure the ingredients at scale, and then dispatch them to their branches. Think McDonalds, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Subway etc.

Rahul Gandhi would have better served his cause had he wished for that jalebi-maker to open more outlets in India and the world. Or, had he said that the jalebi batter made by the sweetshop can be packaged and sold, and that this factory can employ thousands of people.

But with talking with aplomb about his vision for a jalebi factory, Gandhi has signalled that he is neither familiar with the lives of ordinary Indians, and nor with a sweet they much love—the innocent jalebi.