Live: Gujarat govt was involved in 2002 riots, says Rahul Gandhi

9.00 pm: 'You have to understand who Rahul Gandhi is to conclude what he is scared of'

"I have lost my loved ones, I am not scared of losing anything else," says Gandhi. Ten minutes into Rahul Gandhi's interview, these were the only lines that the Congress Vice-President said without looking like a high school kid faced with a particularly difficult trigonometry problem. Like we already pointed out, Gandhi is at his evasive best. Though Goswami has goaded him to answer his questions 'specifically' and 'categorically', Gandhi even refused to call Modi by his name - he only chose to refer to him as 'opposition'.

8.55 pm: Will Brand Rahul be resuscitated? 

Apart from being the party's vice president, Rahul Gandhi also happens to be Congress' worst kept secret. From his alleged 'to be, or not to be PM candidate' dilemma to the several self goals he has scored on behalf of the party, Rahul has been a bigger enigma for Congress than the party's opponents or voters. While everyone from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Finance Minister P Chidambaram has gone on record to express their confidence in Rahul as a Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 general elections, the Congress VC has remained tight-lipped about his role in the party.

The prolonged confusion and criticism about his role in the Congress partially stems from the fact that his public relations has been patchy at its best. Though the mainstream media is sort of familiar with his ever-smiling yet ever-evasive persona, in this Twitter-age, Rahul's public relations misses a necessary social media edge, unlike is adversary Narendra Modi. Apart from that, he rarely meets the media individually in the way of interviews.

Rahul Gandhi. Reuters.

The idea of Rahul Gandhi, therefore, is strictly built on his televised public addresses, many of which the general middle class voters have neither time or patience for. Even if carefully screened and orchestrated, Narendra Modi still has some direct public interactions to his credit, including a Google Hangout session. Modi is active on Twitter and has addressed everything from college functions to foundation stone-laying ceremonies where he finds a legitimate opportunity to pillory the Congress and promote his politics of development.

Though Sonia Gandhi has declared that Rahul will not be declared the party's PM candidate, there seems to be a visible movement in that direction. From the posters branding Rahul as the anti-corruption ninja to the TV commercials on Congress' success concluding with the face of Rahul playing the perfect political poster-boy right to the starched white kurta pajama and I'm-going-to-fix-the-world smile, it's impossible to deny that the Modi's Congress counterpart, at least for this election, is Rahul Gandhi.

Also, there has been a slow but steady progress on the public relations front. From print interview in several years given to Dainik Bhaskar to his widely televised 'interactions' with panchayat members and women activists in several districts, Rahul's public relations vehicle has slowly taken off. The latest in the itinerary, therefore, is a television interview. To be conducted on Times Now by Arnab Goswami, Gandhi has worked up quite a Twitter storm by turning up to be interviewed by Goswami.

If his print interview is anything to go by, Gandhi might possibly maintain a elusive aura, only half answering questions lobbed at him. However, if he has important announcements to make and ideas to promote, without a melee of reporters mobbing him, this is probably his best chance at it. Will Brand Rahul take a step forward with this Times Now interview? We'll know in a bit.