Author: Ravindra Dani
Publication: Marathi weekly "Vivek" (free translation)
Date: April 12, 2009
Witness the irony of fate.
While the Congress party is busy making preparations
for the crowning of Rahul Gandhi, one devotee of Varun Gandhi has made all
these preparations useless.
Although Rahul Gandhi is touring all over
the country giving speeches, discussions are being held everywhere of the
Gandhi who is incarcerated in the jail of Pilbhit. Even though the TV channels
are telecasting 'live' the speeches of Rahul Gandhi, yet the speech which
touched the heart of the public was that of Gandhi of Pilbhit. While the intelligentsia
of the country has been singing praise of Rahul, discussions are being held
in all villages and towns on the speech of Varun Gandhi. CD's of his speech
are being sold in tens thousands. ….Sanjai Gandhi went to the Turkman
Gate and seeing the condition of it, told Shri B. R. Tamra, the Vice-Chairman
of Delhi Residential Corporation, "All this locality must be cleared
by tomorrow evening". What followed next day is history and is famous
by the name Turkman Gate. By use of bulldozer, all the incursions on the roads
were cleared during the night only. Such was the terror of Sanjay Gandhi.
The difference which existed between Sanjay and Rajeev, same exists today
between Rahul and Varun….
Rahul is in Parliament for the last 5 years
and has delivered only lonely speech. He had been to the house of one Ms Kalavati.
While mentioning her in the speech, his entire rigmarole turned out to be
a thing of ridicule. The journalists sitting in the lobby counted the times
Rahul mentioned Kalavati. It was 32 times. There was no substance whatsoever
in the entire speech.
In sheer contrast, Varun Gandhi mentioned
in one of his speech, an imaginary name "Karimullah" and a storm
was raised over it. Varun and Maneka both were shaken by it. But in this difficult
moment, his mother, Maneka gave a million dollar advice to him, "Remain
firm on whatever you have spoken. Don't beat a retreat." Not only he
followed her advice, but prepared himself to go to jail for two years.
The speech of Varun Gandhi in Pilbhit is inspiring
and fiery. He make a mention of the word "Katwa" (which is a slang
for circumcised person). There he says that these people must be caught and
must be subjected to 'Nasbandi'. Without mentioning Mahatma Gandhi he says,
"Those who tells you to offer another cheek if slapped on one, are fools."
Here is a reference to the Movie 'Lage Raho Munnabhai'. Varun says that the
hand which slaps on one cheek, must be cut off before it hits on the cheek
of any other. And the people go crazy with applause.. While mentioning terrorists,
he says, "The name of these people are terrifying, like Karimullah etc."
..
May be, his language is objectionable, but
the sentiments of that speech has influenced the common man. When he says
that I will protect your sisters and mothers, the crowd loudly cheers him.
This is the test of leadership. The leader who appeals to the people's sentiments,
when he connects himself to them, he becomes the leader of the public. On
the contrary, the leader who makes his own MPs and leaders to make their heads
down, is only Sarkari leader.
Rahul and Varun are incomparable. There can
be no comparison between them. What Rahul could not do during five years,
much more has been done by this Varun who is behind bars. This was proved
when Varun Gandhi went to surrender to the court in Pilbhit, a mass of young
and old people came down to street, disregarding article 144 which was imposed
there. As if there was a "Aandhi" had come down to see Varun. The
whole Pilbhit was divided on polarization of Hindus and Muslims.
Realising that Rahul cannot stand before Varun,
efforts have been made to forbid him from getting into the field only. For
it, keeping the Chief Election Commissioner, Navin Chawla and Dr Kureshi tried
to stop Varun. They asked BJP not to allow Varun to contest on BJP ticket.
All over the country there was a hue and cry over this order of EC. Then it
was changed into an advice which BJP firmly and stoutly denied to follow.
Now efforts are being made to stop by using NSA.. Soli Sorabji, the legal
pundit in the country has termed this use as illegal and a misuse of law.
It was Delhi which told Mayavati to use NSA against Varun with a carrot of
Muslim votes. …
Is the source of this struggle between the
Gandhis in the speech of Varun in Pilbhit? ..Not at all. Malay KrishnaDhar
once the chief of Intelligence Bureau, in his book "Open Secret"
voices it. "Soon there will be solar eclipse in the house Gandhi and
the result will be explosion between the two daughter-in-laws". "When
this was told to me by a tall and stout Tamili Brahmin, the mystic smile on
his face did not escape my glance. … Soon, I was told to watch Maneka
Gandhi and her colleagues…. Indira Gandhi decided to keep a watch over
Maneka Gandhi and this job was entrusted to me."
"At that time Maneka Gandhi was staying
at 1, Safdarjang Road, i.e PM's residence. The job of keeping watch on her
and her mother Amriteshwar Ananda, staying in Jorbaug area was entrusted to
me.
"It was a difficult task to keep watch
on a person living in PM's residence was a difficult task. We the job of keeping
watch over all persons coming to meet Maneka was started."
(Dhar mentions many antics done by him of
making the telephone connection in one of the Maneka's relatives, dead and
through the guise of repairing it, an instrument tapping it was installed
and to get the messages through radio, a centre was installed in a nearby
temple. )
After reading this reference in Dhar's book,
one gets an idea of the cold war among Gandhi Parivar. Real heir of Indira
was Sanjay and after him Maneka. But Rajeev was selected over Maneka who was
driven out of PM's house.
One Gandhi is backed by Government, another
is backed by people. A storm between Govt Gandhi and People's Gandhi is brewing
in UP.
