It is a voice that is both silent and vocal. Only the special circumstances he finds himself in and his own personality make BJP MP Varun Gandhi reconcile this paradox.
Varun, now 38, was the youngest-ever general secretary of the BJP, and has been elected twice to the Lok Sabha, once during the United Progressive Alliance regime and now in the National Democratic Alliance era. Great grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru and the son of Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, he is known for his wide interest and knowledge in a range of subjects. Yet, the Uttar Pradesh MP is never included in the list of party speakers in the Lok Sabha. Ministers and party functionaries are friendly, but he is not part of the inner circle.
Imaging: Bhaskaran
If not in Parliament, Varun has found a more youthful audience on college campuses across the country. He is an eloquent speaker, addressing developmental and motivational subjects in different states. In addition, he writes articles for print and blogs on infrastructure, agriculture and other serious subjects, refraining from direct comments.
It is not that Varun is happy just doing this apolitical work, but he has not found favour with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign. Varun was then general secretary in charge of West Bengal, and the two reportedly did not share positive vibes. Though Varun knew that his mother, a veteran parliamentarian who had been a minister earlier, would be the preferred choice for a position in the government, he assumed he would continue as an office bearer. But, Amit Shah, the new president handpicked by Modi, dropped him from the list of office bearers. He was, however, popular among the youth workers, who had rallied against the Akhilesh Yadav government. When the party national executive met at Allahabad in 2016, posters portraying Varun as the best choice for the chief minister’s post had sprung up. The posters were pulled down before Modi reached the city, and Varun was conspicuous by his absence during the 2017 assembly election campaign. The gulf has only widened for various reasons, including Varun’s visits to families of farmers who had committed suicide as well as his donation to the Kerala CM’s relief fund following the devastating floods. The monetary relief was offered apparently without taking the party’s permission. His stoicism at taking these negative signals in his stride has surprised many in the party, but his friends vouch for his maturity and ability to take it on the chin. He has also been a strong representative of Sultanpur, which has been in the political region dominated by three generations of the Gandhi family. Politically, he has kept his distance from his elder cousins, Rahul and Priyanka of the Congress. But, party leaders who had given much work to Varun in his first term as MP between 2009 and 2014 have not been making any public moves for better terms between Modi and Varun.
With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, the BJP has hinted at dropping many a sitting member from Uttar Pradesh. Varun’s supporters in Sultanpur and Pilibhit, his former constituency, however, hope their leader remains in the fray.
sachi@theweek.in