Of the political families that dot the landscape of India, providing dynastic continuity to the country’s democracy, the Nehru-Gandhi family is unquestionably pre-eminent. Having produced three prime ministers and another who shunned the crown in response to her “inner voice”, the Gandhis are India’s foremost political brand. The unending curiosity over the untold tales of the Gandhis has generated a cottage industry of Gandhiana. This is more so because the Gandhis, despite being in public life, have operated on the principle that aloofness adds to the family mystique.
As a fourth Gandhi positions himself to acquire the mandate to reclaim the rights over Race Course Road, there is unending speculation over a 42-year-old Rahul Gandhi about whom precious little is known. In the United States, a man aspiring to be president has to witness the unedifying spectacle of every detail of his private life since childhood intensely scrutinised by every nosy parker in town. The reason is obvious: everything about a possible occupant of the White House must be in the public domain to assess his suitability for the job.
India, it would seem, doesn’t care for an information overload. On the contrary, the political culture is content with a deficit of information. At the same time, there is a secret yearning to know what our political leaders do outside politics, in the same way as there is a craving to know what the “real” Shah Rukh Khan and Sachin Tendulkar are all about.
The “first authoritative biography”– as the publishers modestly proclaim on the dust jacket – of the Congress’ heir apparent is overdue for the simple reason that there are more questions about Rahul than there are answers. What is the young man all about? How did he spend his adolescent years? Who were his friends in Delhi and in those long years he spent outside India? What interests him passionately outside politics? Who influences him? These are questions that are constantly asked in the drawing rooms and tea shops of India. And they are rarely answered because the public information about Rahul is almost zero. He has lived behind a very high wall of privacy, which may even be called secrecy.
The subject of this book by two young Delhi-based journalists is, therefore, both relevant and timely. If this “Amul baby” or “Babua” – as he has uncharitably been called – is to be prime minister, India deserves to know what it is electing.
Regrettably, the book is an easy-to-read collation of all the information about Rahul, particularly the post-2004 Rahul, that is already in the public domain. Oh yes, there are additional titbits such as testimonies about Rahul’s self-effacing politeness, his love of adventure sports and the manic use of the BlackBerry by his staff (and presumably him). But these would not occupy more than three pages of this 267-page book.
I, for one, would have loved to have got some idea of the intellectual influences on him. Who were his friends at St Stephen’s, Harvard, the lesser-known college in Florida from where he graduated, and Cambridge? There is not a word, which prompts the speculation that he didn’t have friends. Has he been troubled by this constant institution hopping? Is he, therefore, a loner or a man incapable of forging non-hierarchical friendships? Must those “close” to him always have to be supplicants?
More From This Section
None of the questions biographers normally ask have been asked by the authors. The reason may be quite simple: this “authoritative” biography was written without the authors having met the subject. Kanishka Singh may be a good chap but speaking to a mid-level executive isn’t the same as asking the boss directly.
Instead, the book subjects the reader to a well-meaning but not very insightful account of the so-called youth “revolution” Rahul has quietly ushered in the Congress. Reading between the lines is the story of a man who approaches politics with the mindset of someone who is terribly enamoured of American-style political marketing. This obvious fact is lost on the biographers, who don’t seem very clued into the dynamics of Indian politics.
But why blame the young authors for not going beyond awestruck superficiality? Doesn’t Penguin (India) have quality control?
RAHUL
Jatin Gandhi and Veenu Sandhu
Penguin/Viking
267 pages; Rs 499
