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In the summer of 2008, as the Congress was preparing for the following year's general elections, Rahul Gandhi requested India's top boxing coach, Om Prakash Bharadwaj, to teach him how to box. The training began at the Congress leader's official residence, 12 Tughlak Lane. Rahul proved to be a model student, earnest and hardworking. "He was always ready for more. If I told him to run one round of the lawn to warm up, he would run three," Bharadwaj told this writer. At times, Rahul's younger sibling, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and her children, Raihan and Miraya, would also come to watch him train. One day, Priyanka asked Bhardwaj to teach her as well. The coach then explained some elementary moves to her. The punch she threw after that brief lesson left him speechless. "It was a beautiful punch, totally unexpected from someone trying her hand at boxing for the first time," said the Dronacharya awardee.
Six years later, 42-year-old Priyanka packs as much punch in her speech. She might have entered the arena late, but the punches she has thrown at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been far more powerful and effective than those by all other Congress leaders, including Rahul, put together. When it seemed that Narendra Modi had almost decimated the Congress, she hit back with unexpected firepower, breathing life into the party's flagging campaign. But in the process, she has dwarfed the brother she is campaigning for. The spotlight is now on her. Many within the Congress are not unduly worried about this. "The party is conscious that at this point, it has to focus on winning seats and not on trying to build Rahul's image," says an observer.
More involved in the party than ever before, "she is already playing the role of Rahul's de facto chief-of-staff," says technocrat Sam Pitroda who works closely with the Gandhi family. She has become the critical bridge between the old guard, which Rahul has sidelined, and the new team that he wants to nurture. Of course, there are those cliches about how politics comes to her more naturally than to Rahul and how she is a mirror image of her grandmother, Indira, in looks, mannerism and attitude. In fact, her brief campaign has revealed that there are traits she shares with arch rival Modi. Both when confronted with serious allegations - Modi about the 2002 riots and Priyanka about her husband Robert Vadra's quick fortune - reduce and eventually dismiss everything as a political allegation without answering questions directly. "Bolne do unko. Main unki vinashak, nakaratmak aur sharmnaak rajneeti ke khilaaf hoon. Mein chup nahin rahoongi. Mein kisi se nahin darti hoon. (Let them say what they want to. I am against their destructive, negative and shameful politics. I will not stay silent. I am not scared of anybody.)" That was Priyanka Gandhi, equally adept in Hindi and English, reacting to a question about BJP targeting her husband - short on substance, long on emotion.
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There are other differences too between the siblings. While Rahul has projected an anti-dynasty image and wants to democratise the party, Priyanka, by passionately invoking Indira and her father, Rajiv, and by playing a pained wife whose husband is being targeted by her brother's political opponents, has succeeded in wrenching back that space in the political campaign that is reserved for emotions and passion.
Her reaction time is much faster. She does not wait to dwell on or analyse something, but addresses issues instantly. That's a contrast from Rahul who is more measured and analytical," says image guru Dilip Cherian. Brevity is her strength. "She doesn't say too much but instead gives those bite-sized comments that are Facebook and Twitter update worthy. Once the social media takes them up, the firepower gets multiplied," Cherian adds. Some liken her style of attack to that of a guerrilla warrior: tactical, targeted and causing a good deal of pain to the adversary. "What she says and does is entirely her call and that's how it should be with a politician," says Kunal Lalani whose Crayons Advertising had handled the Congress campaign in 2009. "That independence of approach is important. Rahul, instead, goes by the strategy worked out by his core team and eventually doesn't appear spontaneous."
She also connects with people the way Rahul is unable to. She will remember their names and faces even in a crowd and will address them personally the next time she meets them. Her demeanour changes from person to person and situation to situation within minutes. An observer recounts an iftar party where a Congress leader standing behind Priyanka kept pestering her by repeatedly saying, "Aap to humain milte nahin ho (you don't meet us)." Priyanka finally turned around and with a disarming smile said, "That is why when we meet, we meet so warmly." The tongue-in-cheek response went down well with the leader who then happily let her be. A little later, guests at the party saw a different Priyanka - this time deferential and courteous. She was speaking with senior Congress leader P M Sayeed, the ten-time Lok Sabha MP from Lakshadweep who died in 2005. "She was respectfully leading him to a chair, speaking softly in his ear," says the observer.
"Compare that to Rahul who does not bother to make an effort, not even at a social gathering," the observer says. He recalls a party where Rahul arrived accompanied by his uncle and spent the entire time conversing only with him in Italian and English or playing with his mobile phone. When he left, a guest asked the host, "Why did you even invite him?" At another time, he landed at a formal dinner in casual khaki trousers. "The impression such slips give is that he is either not attentive or he couldn't care less."
Priyanka is far more calibrated and conscious of the importance of playing to the gallery. In February 2004, before Rahul finally entered politics, the siblings visited Amethi and Rae Bareli. Priyanka did most of the talking with party workers and the people, every now and then turning with a smile to the cameras that followed them. Rahul preferred to chat with the children and carefully avoided the cameras. Similarly, at Sonia's first oath-taking ceremony in the Lok Sabha, Rahul got out of his car and went straight into Parliament House. Priyanka paused for the cameras. She understands the power of images. Throughout Rahul's first television interview on Times Now, she was present in the studio, watching over him. Before the cameras had started rolling, she had checked every frame and also got the painting on the wall behind her brother changed.
All these years, the focus of Priyanka, who got married at 25, has been her children. The only time she has made a public appearance is during election time as a campaigner. Her son is now studying at Doon School in Dehradun, where Rahul and Rajiv also studied. "She visits him in Dehradun every week," a member of the family had told a journalist. "But because of the elections she's now going to him once a fortnight."
Many well-wishers of the Congress hope she will enter active politics soon. Says an analyst: "The best case scenario would be to have Priyanka lead the party, while Rahul goes about fixing and democratising it."
| WAR OF WORDS |
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Modi: Rahul bhaiyya says Modi gusse ki rajneeti kar rahe hain (Rahul says Modi's is the politics of anger). When Rajiv had gone to Hyderabad, he had publicly humiliated the Andhra CM at the airport. Priyanka: They have insulted my martyred father on the soil of Amethi. The people of Amethi will never forgive them. They will reply from every booth. Modi: Netaji (Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav), do you know the meaning of converting UP into Gujarat? It means 24-hour electricity... It takes a 56-inch chest. Priyanka: A 56-inch chest is not needed to run this country, a big heart is needed. Cruel force of power is not needed, but moral strength is needed. |
Priyanka: Main sirf Rajiv Gandhi ki beti hoon (I am only Rajiv Gandhi's daughter).
Modi: The shahzada (Rahul) and his matashree (Sonia) are just concerned about being in power.
Priyanka: Sometimes he calls Rahul a namuna (a specimen) and sometimes a shehzada (prince). You (Modi) aspire to become the prime minister, then why are you being so childish? Respect the dignity of the prime minister's post.
Modi: A for Adarsh, B for Bofors, C for CWG and D for Damad ka Karobaar (son-in-law's business). And, Congress is faithful to an "RSVP model - Rahul, Sonia, Vadra and Priyanka".
Priyanka: You are not teaching in a school, you are addressing the nation. Tell them what you will do… Don't teach them alphabet like RSVP and ABCD.
