The Charm Troopers
The clothes are going up in hangers after being ironed. Four-year-old Rehan is peeping out of the guesthouse as one of the 50 wireless-wielding SPG men shoos him inside. Soon enough his mother Priyanka Vadra steps into a Toyota Qualis and is driven off for a long day of meetings at Rae Bareli. Rehan’s uncle, 34-year-old Rahul Gandhi, clad in his customary white kurta pyjama and olive green sports shoes, is in Amethi, meeting scores of citizens before setting out on a series of nukkad( street corner) meetings. One old man falls at his feet. To another he says good humouredly: “Arre,aapphir aagaye (You have come again).” For yet another, he has a hand on the shoulder and a little walkabout.
It is 10 a.m. at the Gandhi fiefdom, just another day in the life of Congress’First Family on the campaign trail.
It is the closest thing Indian politics has to a rock tour. If Rahul is the rock star, Priyanka is the diva, her husband (and Rahul’s designated driver) Robert Vadra is the chorus, and journalists are the reluctantly star-struck groupies. At a rally in Gauriganj, Vadra gestures to the crowd: “Mereaagebolo, Rahul Gandhi zindabad. Merepeeche bolo, Rahul Gandhi zindabad (Those in front of me, those behind me, everybody say Rahul Gandhi will live forever).” The 500-odd people break out in applause.“Inse picture zaroorlelena (Make sure he sends you the photograph),” says Rahul to a young boy, gesturing to the photographer trailing his cavalcade.
The other Gandhi has no such paraphernalia. There is no fleet of SPG cars for Feroze Varun Gandhi (or FVG as he likes to call himself). His only companion on a rickety fiveseater Beechcraft which hurtles its way into Chhindwara is a personal assistant who shakily advises him to put on his seat belt. Even as his mother, Maneka Gandhi, fights to be six-time MP from Pilibhit, her 24- year-old son, a year too young to contest elections, is earning his spurs by campaigning for the BJP. Having covered over 40 constituencies, he is running a mild temperature and his throat is showing signs of rebellion, but the will to prove himself is too strong. INDIATODAY, MAY3,2004