Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s politics of intimacy

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has demonstrated in the ongoing election campaign that she has overcome her trauma over the assassination of her grandmother Indira Gandhi in 1984 and seven years later of father Rajiv Gandhi The scars may still run deep but she has acquired the necessary psychological distance from her traumatic experiences to emerge as the chronicler of her familyrsquos griefHer chronicle is personalised she publicly articulates emotions usually voiced behind closed doors among friends and family In doing so she and the audiences at her rallies are bonded together as one large family which must therefore be made privy to her suffering over Indira falling to a hail of bullets and Rajiv being blown into piecesCall it the politics of intimacyWhether in Amethi or Rae Bareli Morena or Nandurbar Priyanka vividly describes her familyrsquos grief at different venues with minor variations Pieced together the story is as follows After the Congress was voted out of power in the 1989 general election she worried over her fatherrsquos security even fasting five days a week for his wellbeing She said she would not sleep at night until she heard her father walk past her roomOne summer night in 1991 she received a phone call informing her that Rajiv had been assassinated It became her burden to convey the news to her mother Sonia With a touch of drama she says she told her mother that the man for whose love she left her country to make India as her own for whose sake she embraced its culture was dead A strange kind of darkness spread in Soniarsquos eyes she did not eat for days despite Priyankarsquos cajoling surviving only on nimbupanildquoI was 19 years old I was angryrdquo Priyanka confesses She was angry because she had sent her father to the people trusting them to protect him But they returned him in pieces wrapped in the tricolour drenched in blood With time she realised her anger with them was of the kind we direct at those whom we love That they loved Rajiv became palpable to her when the train she took to Allahabad where Rajivrsquos ashes were to be immersed stopped at Rae Bareli She was forlorn she thought nobody could understand her pain Yet when Priyanka looked out of the window she saw hundreds of people gathered at the station late at night They were weeping inconsolably Priyanka realised she and the people were tied together by knots of familial sorrowAfter turning the venue of rally into an intimate family space she refers to the Prime Ministerrsquos charge that Priyankarsquos father abolished the inheritance tax in 1985 in order to save on the tax he would have had to pay on the wealth he inherited from Indira In intimate spaces we are allowed to vent And so she explodes pointing out that what her father received in inheritance was the spirit and passion for martyrdom ldquoHow can they call a personality like Indira antinational who broke Pakistan into two and created Bangladeshrdquo Priyanka lashes outTheymdashBharatiya Janata Party obviouslymdashcannot understand the emotions martyrdom engenders Priyanka thunders ldquoBut you canrdquo she tells her listeners They can because they have irrigated the land of India with their sweat and send their children to the border where they are martyred ldquoI understand your emotions because those very emotions are in merdquo she says The subtext of her speech those whose sons or fathers have not shed blood for the nation can only be disrespectful of martyrsAt Nandurbar a reserved constituency for Scheduled Tribes she speaks of how her grandmother always preserved the little giftsmdashbaskets for instancemdashAdivasis would send her She would tell her grandchildren where the gifts came from extolling the Adivasis for their unique culture The Gandhis unlike others have never tried to culturally transform the Adivasis Intimacy implies accepting differencesPriyanka has played the politics of intimacy most tellingly in Amethi and Rae Bareli narrating how Motilal Nehru sent her greatgrandfather Jawaharlal to find out about the arearsquos farmers who had displayed courage by rebelling against the British Yes they did vanquish Indira but did she not introspect correct her mistakes and return to them seeking forgiveness They elected her Wouldnrsquot Rajiv with Priyanka in tow visit their homes Did they not scold him for unfulfilled promises And didnrsquot her father make amends It is to uphold the tradition of establishing intimacy with the people that her brother ldquowalked 4000 kilometresrdquo to enquire about their problemsBut Indiarsquos politics has changed over the years Leaders donrsquot go to people with humility with their heads bowed They address rallies from the dais and disappear she says dramatising intimacy by identifying a woman in the audience who stitched sari falls to raise money for educating her daughter Priyanka summons the woman to the stage and hugs her India must return to the politics of intimacy Priyanka imploresRae Bareli and Amethi will be Priyankarsquos test Should the Congress lose both it will be a testament to India having fallen for the politics of remote persuasion and controlThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper