Showing up unexpectedly at a press conference addressed by a party underling, Rahul slammed the Indian government's plans to introduce an ordinance that would effectively void a Supreme Court order banning from parliament politicians who had received criminal convictions.
The ordinance, Rahul said, is "complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away".
The contretemps in New Delhi that resulted would have been hailed as high drama from an influential rebel if it wasn't an all too familiar farce. Far too often, the Gandhi family that controls the Congress party and the governing coalition has pushed the Singh government one way, only to distance itself from him in the face of a public backlash.
In this case, the debate over a Bill overturning the court order had racked India for weeks. Everyone knew its purpose was to save the political careers of key allies in the Congress-led coalition. The ordinance was needed as a stopgap measure as the Bill wound its way through parliament.
