The world 'according to Rahul Gandhi' - Coca-Cola founder as 'shikanji' seller,

Rahul Gandhi

 Congress president Rahul Gandhi today cited the examples of successful American entrepreneurs to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies but took the analogies too far by describing the founder of Coca-Cola as a 'shinkanji seller' and that of McDonald's a 'dhaba wala'.He also said the founders of Ford, Mercedes and Honda were 'mechanics' whose skills were recognized by the meritocratic system in their countries and allowed them to prosper.

However, his remarks failed to achieve the desired results, at least on social media, with the hashtag "#AccordingToRahulGandhi" becoming an immediate hit and one of the top India Twitter trends, as thousands mocked him in various creative ways, using pictures, cartoons and graphics. Someone also 'tampered' with the Wikipedia page of John Pemberton, the American pharmacist who is best known as the developer and founder of Coca-Cola. In the first paragraph of the Wikipedia page, someone had added: "He used to sell lemonade (Shikhanji) in his earlier days along with Gandhi family." 

However, this flippant addition was removed shortly afterwards.The Wikipedia page made no mention of Pemberton ever being involved in the lemonade business. It describes Pemberton, who lived from July 8, 1831 to August 16, 1888, as a pharmacist who in May 1886 developed an early version of a beverage that would later become world-famous as Coca-Cola. He sold his rights to the drink shortly before his death.