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As we gear up for battleground 2014, and possibly for a Gandhi vs. Gandhi direct faceoff in Sultanpur, Varun and his mother Menaka, who constitute the lesser prominent faction of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty have been upping the ante against Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi. Back in September last year, Varun slammed Rahul for his outburst against the contentious ordinance to protect convicted politicians. More recently, his mother who has always shared an icy relationship with her sister-in-law Sonia and her kids, branded nephew Rahul a ‘bird’ as compared to Modi whom she called a ‘tiger’. No one was entirely convinced how the bird analogy was either a piercing, hostile or a fitting enough delineation of Rahul, but be that as it may. Menaka didn’t spare niece Priyanka either, saying “her glamour will not help the Congress in the upcoming elections.”
Beyond the mud-slinging and trading of barbs though, how do the two cousins – Rahul and Varun, appear when pitted against one another? The discourse about 2014 has largely been about a Modi Vs. Rahul faceoff. But what if we were to compare Jawaharlal Nehru’s great-grandsons – one the son of the rash, impetuous, problematic but almost cult-like Sanjay Gandhi who has been denied his patrimony by the dominant wing of his family, the other – son of the accidental Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and reluctant heir to a losing throne?
Perfunctorily, it would seem history is repeating itself, albeit with a twist and altered fortunes. At the time of Sanjay’s death, Rajiv was part of the reluctant branch of the Nehru household – a private citizen, a pilot, disinterested and disengaged with politics. Sanjay on the other hand was the original inheritor, the torch bearer of his grandfather and mother’s legacy. Then, the plane crashed and Rajiv, like Rahul ostensibly is being today, was forced to the centre stage of politics. Varun on the other hand has been enduringly cut off from his legacy, and can claim neither the political standing nor the cult his father once commanded. He has been seen though, to be emulating the dangerous traits his father once displayed when he was jailed for the communally provocative speech at Pilibhit during the last elections, for which he has subsequently been acquitted.
That was 2009 though. In the years since, Rahul has only reinforced his image as a reluctant, self-effacing, insufficiently eager politician, throwing empty abstractions like “empowerment”, and “systemic change” and peddling worn-out social sector exploits during TV interviews and campaign speeches, rather than spelling out big, disruptive ideas for the country. Varun on the other hand, much as he has the invincible shadow of Modi to surmount before coming into prominence, has slowly convalesced his image of a vitriolic communal agitator, and has been making noises that at least industry would be pleased to hear.
In an Op-Ed in the Economic Times, he viciously attacked the UPA’s ‘failed social experiment’ and the insidious subsidy culture’ in India where ‘If an election is coming, a quick word will raise the LPG cylinder cap or lower CNG prices, ignoring gaping fiscal deficits.’ A direct censure of his cousin’s bid to raise the subsidy on LPG cylinders from 9 to 12. Seemingly, he also took a dig at his aunt saying ‘similar to Italy, our unmanageable spending problems are compounded by welfare expansion and a social expectation for subsidies.’
But unlike the propensity of several BJP leaders, including Modi until recently, to attack the Congress without spelling out their own vision, Gandhi’s columns give a fair insight into his beliefs. He talks of eradicating oil subsidies, majority of which he says are captured by the rich, and compensating the bottom (targetted subsidy) 40% of families by moving to market prices which he believes would lead to ”an immediate improvement in government finances, with lower borrowing and interest expenditures for refining and marketing companies.”
In the same piece, Gandhi also treads where even most BJP leaders have feared to – criticizing the Food Security Act saying it was being implemented even as investments in agro technology were being reduced and would merely “distort the market, leading to losses for those farmers unable to sell to the government.”
Through his tactically timed columns, Varun has chosen to voice his opinions on myriad different issues. From lax financial regulation, to education reform (written post the dismal findings of the ASER report were unveiled) through Public Private Partnerships, tax incentives and flexible accreditation policies to encourage private sector participation, to India’s supposedly flawed defence and arms acquisition strategy. How much of it is gathered perspective rather than fed research is anybody’s guess, and field experts would perhaps be best suited to judge his adroitness to comment with authority on such varied subjects, but Varun’s engagement with issues seems more exigent than his cousin’s outmoded, stale rhetoric.
As we head into another election, with the winds of change blowing fiercely against the Gandhi dynasty one can’t help but ponder how history would have been different, had Sanjay Gandhi’s plane not crashed. What if Varun were at the forefront, and Raul the slighted cousin?
For now, TV journalists who were given a miss by Rahul could perhaps woo the poor cousin and quiz him on his big ideas in a sit-down. He definitely has more interesting things to say!
PS: Don’t forget to ask him what he thinks of big brother Rahul.
