Varun Gandhi’s brotherly praise is a mere manifestation of his impatience.
Varun Gandhi’s brotherly praise is a mere manifestation of his impatience.
The other Gandhi is in news today. And his words are full of love this time, for his estranged brother. BJP West Bengal in-charge Varun Gandhi has praised Congress scion Rahul Gandhi for his work with Self Help Groups in Amethi. This comes at a time when Smriti Irani is trying to make the most of her little time campaigning in Amethi against Rahul.
“We need self help groups, like the successful ones Rahul Gandhi has done in Amethi. But I cannot give you that example properly as I have not seen it myself,” Varun reportedly said addressing a gathering (see video).
This received an equally lovely comment by Rahul, who said, “Varun Gandhi is correct. I am very happy that our work is also being appreciated by others”.
The brotherly love that was put on display attracted the ire of BJP supporters on social media and elsewhere. While the BJP top leadership has not said anything, the opponents of the party showed their happiness quite explicitly.
In fact, Omar Abdullah tweeted:
Looks like Smiti Irani’s campaign has just been shellacked & it didn’t even need Rahul to visit Amethi.
— Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) April 2, 2014
What followed was a series of explanation given by Varun on twitter. Here are the tweets that he posted on the micro-blogging site:
1/4 My comment, last night, in a meeting with teachers and NGOs, in response to being asked whether I knew about initiatives in Amethi, was
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) April 2, 2014
2/4 that although I had not seen the work done via self help groups in Amethi, I had heard it was fairly decent, and that I would stress
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) April 2, 2014
3/4 on empowering people towards being self-reliant.
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) April 2, 2014
4/4 It should NOT be seen as an endorsement of any political party or candidate.
— Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) April 2, 2014
Varun Gandhi, when started his journey with BJP, was proving to be a promising youth leader. His popularity charts kept rising as he was (and is) a better orator than Rahul. His rallies saw major turnouts and he was seen as the rising stars in BJP who was almost an inch away from cementing his place in the higher ranks.
And then he fell down.
In 2009, when he was made the national general secretary of BJP – the youngest politician to be ever elevated to this level – he was caught up in a string of hate speech during a rally in Pilibhit where he spewed venom against Muslim community. It was his first rally for standing in his first lok sabha election. When he surrendered, violence broke out. However, he was exonerated later but there is no denying the fact that all the 88 witness in the case turned hostile to let him remain free.
After that, he remained mostly out of news. But he did some ground work in BJP and managed to attract people in his rallies. He wanted a bigger role and wished to be projected as a youth leader who will take care of Uttar Pradesh when the state elections were announced. Instead, he was given the charge of West Bengal BJP for the sheer fact that his wife is Bengali.
His disenchantment with the party probably began at this time only.
Now that BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi and party president Rajnath Singh are managing most of the business, he demands attention. He is well aware as to why and how the old guard of the party is being reined. Perhaps this was the reason behind his big lie when he dubbed Modi’s massive rally in Kolkata – where over 5 lakh people came to listen to him – as an ‘okay’ one where ‘only 40,000’ people came.
Now that Smriti Irani has been pitted against Rahul by Modi, this is all the more reason to be jealous for Varun. But what he fails to understand is that Smriti has earned her space by her due diligence and hardwork. To think that Varun’s comment will hurt her campaign will only be foolish.
There is no harm in praising the opponent once in a while, but embarrassing own party again and again is not a good sign. It will be Varun’s biggest mistake if he is being played by those who forced his mother to leave her in-laws house. And impatience won’t do because only those are rewarded who prove their mettle.
It is time Varun either owns or drops his surname, completely.
