Learning lessons from his father

A year ago, if Rahul Gandhi had said he was visiting the UAE, the huge Indian diaspora would have been curious but not overly excited. Gandhi would have been a reasonable draw but not magnetic. A few thousand people trucked in would have been on par for the course and that would have been that. He has grown exponentially in political stature since then, and this visit should cheerfully pull in at least 25,000 people to the Dubai Cricket Stadium on January 11 seeing as how it is not only free entry but refreshments and boxed dinners given gratis will add a little spice to the proceedings. To assure the public that the four-hour programme is more than just wasting in the most part for the VIP speech there are these 70 odd artists putting up a cultural programme ostensibly underscoring India's unity in diversity. For the masses from the labour camps, it would be a nice change of nostalgic pace.

Rather like his father who learnt his lessons bitterly at the hands of his kitchen cabinet and would have become a first-rate leader in the second round having matured politically, Rahul has also been blooded by the most humiliating insults and attacks and personal vilifications, but he showed similar mettle and never let the slurs sink him.

It is not easy to get up each morning to face a barrage of personal invective and be reduced to a caricature by even the media. That he came out of that tunnel into the light without really doing anything more than showing that raw courage and energy does indicate a little gravel in the gut.

Even though there may be a sizeable number of people who feel the transition from the Pappu epithet to a David-like challenger, to a man who four years ago was seen as indestructible but not yet complete, it cannot be denied that the Rahul Gandhi bandwagon has not lost a wheel and rolls on gathering its own caravan of support.

Whether this will translate into votes at the hustings one cannot say but he is no longer seen as a political lightweight. There might also be a school of thought that believes the BJP frontline has nourished the image of this young scion by constantly baiting and badgering him rather than simply using the weapon of silent contempt and ignoring him. Instead, the assaults on the Gandhi family en masse have become so central to the BJP that Rahul has taken full advantage of the approach. Instead of being battered into submission he has taken the blows and absorbed the sucker punches and done it smilingly and given back as good as he has got. He has realised that even the Indian masses are getting tired of the personal attacks and now is enjoying them and turning them into boomerangs with good effect.

Gradually, the admiration for his staying power has impacted on the public mind. Come January 11, the NRI community will throng to the Ring of Fire to see and hear the man who might now not be just a great pretender, but an actual contender come the elections this year.

People who meet him say he is affable, gentle, hugely polite and graceful in his demeanour. His father was like that. The perfect gentleman, soft-spoken and with a great sense of humour. He was also a sport, and on the few occasions on duck and partridge hunting outside Delhi he would never shoot a sitting bird but wait for it to take off.

One thing about Rajiv Gandhi is that he wore his rank lightly and his son does pretty much the same. Rahul will receive a resoundingly warm welcome in Dubai next week, and even his detractors will attend the function to suss out what the man is made of and see him from close quarters.

His speech will probably be chatty and anecdotal rather oratorical because that is a Modi mould and Gandhi knows better than to play in that field. But there are many ways to capture the attention of the public, and when it is a user-friendly audience, it is more than half the task done.

If there are those, who are making an effort to attend in the hope that Gandhi will get into a Modi bashing mode they might well be disappointed. Rahul is smart enough to know he is in a third country, and this is not the venue or the occasion for political bashing. I hope he stays away from issues that are contentious and sticks to NRI-oriented subjects and a bit of a happy interaction and conversation with the crowd.

People who meet him say he is affable, gentle, hugely polite and graceful in his demeanour. His father was like that. The perfect gentleman, soft-spoken and with a great sense of humour.