Why Priyanka’s Vellore visit is not personal

Trying to gain public sympathy over private grief is a temptation too strong to resist for many political families. Today’s young voters, who are sought to be wooed by the yuvraj in the dynasty-controlled Congress party, need to know of the time in November 1984 when Doordarshan, then the sole TV channel in India, was cynically exploited to serve as the most effective election campaigner for Rajiv Gandhi.

DD almost completely blacked out the massacre of 3,000 innocent Sikhs in Delhi following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, but its non-stop beaming of the image of a grieving young man, until then unsullied by any political controversy, beside the body of his assassinated mother, was enough to create a sympathy wave so powerful that Rajiv, a greenhorn in politics, won more seats for the Congress in the Lok Sabha than even his mother or grandfather. As L.K. Advani has described in his recently released autobiography, My Country, My Life, it was not a Lok Sabha election but a ‘Shok Sabha’ election, whose outcome was so abnormal that the BJP could win only two seats. How Rajiv frittered away the huge mandate, and how one of the biggest blunders of his premiership — sending the IPKF to Sri Lanka to fight the LTTE — ultimately claimed his own life, is, of course, another matter.

Rajiv’s daughter Priyanka Vadra recently visited Nalini Sriharan, now serving a life-term in Vellore Central Prison for her role in his assassination in May 1991. “Meeting with Nalini was my way of coming to peace with the violence and loss that I have experienced,” she said in a statement on Tuesday. As the daughter of India’s former prime minister who became the victim of a terrorist act, she and the other members of her family naturally had the sympathy of the nation. And if it indeed was “a purely personal visit”, as Priyanka has claimed, it can even be viewed as an admirable act of human bonding that transcends a terrible tragedy, a reminder that time is the greatest healer in all tragedies.

However, going by the way a section of the media has been busy eulogising Priyanka and her family (“It shows the large-heartedness of the Gandhis ... and why they are so special and popular.” “ ... (it) has pulled the heart strings of the nation and added to the halo of the Gandhi family... (it) has rekindled the nation’s nostalgia for the Nehru-Gandhi family and brought back memories of its ‘sacrifices’ for the nation.” — both quotes from the newspaper which carried the well-orchestrated ‘scoop’), it is difficult to believe that considerations of political gain had nothing to do with this episode.

... contd.

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.

Mail this page