Days after Rahul Gandhi’s pet dog Pidi became a Twitter sensation after he shared a video of the canine performing a stunt, Congress Vice President himself has made a splash on social media with his images in various positions of Aikido, a Japanese martial art, going viral.
Congress party’s official Twitter handle retweeted a Tweet that showed the party Vice President in various Aikido positions with a sensei, Paritos Kar.
.@OfficeOfRG RG with Sensei Paritos Kar during one of the #Aikido sessions. https://t.co/7H9N5CuUVy pic.twitter.com/MxCGg95IvL
— Bharad (@bharad) October 31, 2017
.@OfficeOfRG @INCIndia#Aikido is a way of life.
Truly humbled to have shared classroom with #RahulGandhi https://t.co/TcyZFUg3qC pic.twitter.com/oTanteAUTo— Bharad (@bharad) November 1, 2017
Notedly, Olympian Vijender Singh had asked the Gandhi scion last week as to why a lot of politicians were rarely seen playing any sport even though they inaugurate sports events. To Singh’s question, the 47-year-old replied that he had been practising Aikido, which is a modern Japanese martial art, and he also swam regularly.
He said,
I am a black belt in Aikido – have you heard of it? But I don’t talk about it publicly. I do one hour of sports every day, though I admit I haven’t been doing much in the past three-four months.
Singh then suggested that Gandhi should post videos of himself doing these so that they can inspire the youth. Gandhi had replied with a grin and said that he would. Tuesday’s tweet seems to be Rahul Gandhi’s response over Singh’s suggestion. It must be noted that his pics rather than his videos emerged on the internet.
Aikido is a modern Japanese martial arts form based on the concept of resolving conflict in a non-lethal, non-disruptive yet effective way. Founded by ace martial artist Morihei Ueshiba in early twentieth century, Aikido emphasises on the development of internal, as well as physical, integrity. What makes Aikido different from other Japanese art forms is its focus on harmonizing with your opponent to bring peaceful resolutions to situations involving conflict.
As Ueshiba used to say,
To injure an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace.
Aikido involves a comprehensive system of throwing, joint-locking, striking and pinning techniques, coupled with training in traditional Japanese weapons such as the sword, staff and knife.
