Rahul or Priyanka? Who gets your vote

Who will be the Gandhi to inherit the Nehru-Gandhi mantle to lead the Congress party and, by extension, this nation of a billion-plus Indians? Did you say Rahul Gandhi, and instantly thought of a smiling Priyanka Vadra Gandhi? If you were given a choice between the two, who would you vote for?

The “chosen one”, or shall we say “Mom’s chosen one” is, in true Indian tradition, the male offspring, Rahul. But in a family that has seen an Indira and a Sonia, Priyanka is not outside the pale. In fact, if it comes to a popular vote, she might just steal the show from brother dear, of whom she is overly protective.

That is not to say that Rahul is any less a candidate for the people’s vote. Rahul, the fifth generation Nehru-Gandhi, seems slated to take this country bravely through the 21st century, a country in need of a dynamic and progressive leader — an eerie reminder of the hopes people had built around his father, Rajiv Gandhi.

There’s a lot of deja vu in this story. Rahul left India in 1990 to do his graduation from Rollins College in Florida, US. He did his M. Phil in development economics from Trinity College, Cambridge, and worked in London with the strategy consultancy firm Monitor Group till 2002. According to sources, when Rahul returned to India in 2002, he wanted to start an engineering and technology outsourcing firm in Mumbai.

Though Rahul appeared with his mother at public meetings during the 1999 general elections, like his father he was reluctant to join politics. Once, while speaking to the media, he refused to give a definitive response, stating: “I am not averse to politics. I have not decided when I will enter politics and if I ever will.”

 It was only in March 2004 that Rahul finally decided and announced that he would contest the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Amethi.The announcement was hailed by the Congress. On the face of it, with his fair looks, deep dimples and baba-log aura, Rahul was as charming, exotic and suited to the job as father Rajiv was when he began his political career. And Congressmen, starved for a Nehru-Gandhi scion to revive their political fortunes, felt that Rahul was well qualified to fill the space left vacant by Rajiv. Many called him a “whiff of fresh air” in the “murky world of Indian politics”.

The first time Priyanka showed she had something of Mrs Indira Gandhi’s political flair was during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections in Rae Bareli. She made a scathing attack on Mr Arun Nehru, her estranged uncle and the then BJP candidate from Rae Bareli: “Mujhe aap se ek shikayat hai. Mere pita ke mantri-mandal mein rehte hue jisne gaddari ki, bhai ki peeth mein chura mara? Jawab dijiye, aise aadmi ko aapne yahan ghusne kaise diya? Unki yahan aane ki himmat kaise hui? (I have a complaint. A man who was a traitor despite being in my father’s cabinet, who stabbed my father in the back, Tell me, how did you let this man in here? How did he have the guts to come here?).”

Priyanka left her audience stunned and it became very difficult for Mr Nehru to control the damage thereafter.But when not campaigning with her mother, Priyanka seems to disconnect from politics. She leads a life as a mother and wife. She drops and picks up her school-going kids, Rehan and Meira, attends PTA meetings, sports days and takes her kids horse riding. “She is so down to earth… beautiful and very impressive,” says a parent whose child studies in the same school. People who meet her can’t seem to stop talking about how normal and how adorable she is.

India has watched Priyanka grieve — at 12 when grandmother Indira Gandhi was assassinated, and at 20 when her father Rajiv Gandhi was killed. And the nation has watched, teary eyed, a daughter still trying to come to terms with her father’s tragic death. The beautiful daughter, still in love with her father, is endearing and human.

She appeals to people’s emotions and that is, perhaps, why many root for her. There are many stories about how caring Priyanka is. Last year, again during the UP Assembly polls, while travelling in a convoy with SPG guards, one of the vehicles met with an accident .By then Priyanka’s car was well on its way. But when she was told of the accident, she drove back to ensure that the men were taken care of.

So who will it be? The sister who is cast more in her grandmother’s mould? Or the son who shares more than just his father’s gorgeous dimples? 

Courtesy: deccan