Any takers for Rahul’s Vatican gotra?

Either the lotus party is playing match-maker for Congress’ most eligible bachelor, Rahul Gandhi, or it is still smarting from the ‘sting’ contained in Shashi Tharoor’s ‘scorpion’ comment.

Hoping to touch a raw nerve -- BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra wants to know what ‘gotra’ Gandhi belongs to.

As all orthodox, traditional Hindus know, when it comes to an arranged marriage, the prospective bride and groom must belong to separate ‘gotras’ or all bets are off; people belonging to the same ‘gotra’ are supposed to be related, as the ‘gotra’ traces their origin to a clan or a descendant in an unbroken line from a common male ancestor.

But the BJP and Patra need not look very far. The answer to their query is right in their midst, so to speak. Simply put, they could refer to their MP from Sultanpur, Feroze Varun Gandhi. Since Varun and Rahul are patrilineal cousins, it stands to reason their ‘gotra’ is the same.

Of course, we know Feroze Gandhi was a Parsi just as Jawahar Lal Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit. But gotra is also strictly by birth and in mixed milieu families, the dividing line gets occasionally blurred. Patra has a profound answer to his own loaded query. People, he said, were calling Rahul a “Vatican ‘gotra’ ka Brahmin”. We had heard of the Boston Brahmins, but this really takes the cake. Retorting to Patra’s remarks, Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said the ‘gotra’ of the BJP leaders is ‘Modiyata’ (Modism). However, the ‘gotra’ of Rahul and the party workers is Indianness. Jai Hind!