Manifesto for Change

What’s keeping Varun Gandhi busy these days? He has recently penned an 827-page long book, sharing his vision for a rural and economic blueprint. The Rural Manifesto has anecdotes, case studies and data to back his ideas. It is this book that he takes to students across India during his interactions at various universities, IIMs and IITs across the country. During the last two years, Varun has visited 208 academic institutions, reaching out to students, discussing economics not politics. In fact, the soft spoken, earnest youth interacting with the students is a far cry from the strident campaigner that once made headlines for all the wrong reasons. (Incidentally, the recording of the “hate speech” that Varun was supposed to have delivered, was later found to have been doctored with as many as 63 cuts.) But perceptions linger, and Varun is doing all he can to eradicate that image. And to hear him earnestly discuss irrigation problems, farmers’ suicides, and employment generation, one would say he is succeeding. Sample one such speech he gave in Hyderabad recently, “It takes 24 lakh to create one job in the steel sector and one lakh to create 24 jobs in the steel sector. We have to act smart to use this information.” That’s smarter political rhetoric for sure.