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THE GANDHI’S
Stop, Vote & Go
CARTOON
82
Here in 2009, I see the television savvy Priyanka standing beside her
brother Rahul after the Congress victory in this year’s General elections.
Cut to 1996 and my brush with the scarcely public Gandhi family.
by: Gaurav S. Karrir
I
remember the day very clearly. I was waiting at the Nirman
Bhavan polling station in New Delhi’s posh government office
area in April 1996. It was eight thirty in the morning. Veteran
super star Rajesh Khanna was talking to a seventy-year-old
woman from a nearby slum who had come to vote in the general
elections of India. I was stationed there on behalf of a television news
channel to report on the VIPs coming to vote that day.
Word leaked out that a very important personality was coming
to the polling station. While others in the voting line were looking
at Rajesh Khanna star
struck, the star himself
was waiting for his
mentor in the Congress
party, Sonia Gandhi, to
arrive with her family
to vote for him. Khanna
had been blessed with a
ticket for the Lok Sabha
seat for the New Delhi
constituency and he was
grateful to the Gandhi
family for supporting
him. In the last general
elections in 1991
Khanna had given a close fight to the country’s leading opposition
party leader.
Suddenly we heard a screeching of tyres and a rush of boots
as security personnel jumped out of three Ambassador cars. The
occupants were all seated in the back. They were Sonia Gandhi and
her children Rahul and Priyanka. Rajesh Khanna greeted them and in a
most unlikely manner the VIPs stood at the end of a long queue to vote.
But the security personnel requested them to break off and ushered
them inside the polling station citing security threat. Now if that was
a smart PR move or a genuine impulse one will never know but it was
heartening to see the gesture.
Inside the polling booth I had stationed my cameraman on top of a
The International Indian
perch to get the best angle. It was
all a rush rush affair as polling
officers tallied their names on
the voters’ list and thrust ballot
papers in their hands. Within a
few minutes the Gandhi’s had cast
their votes. I was determined to
have a word with the Gandhi’s on
the voting experience. With Sonia
and Rahul in front I missed
my chance but seeing
Priyanka lagging behind
I shot off my questions
to her, “Are you voting
for the first time?” ‘‘No,’’
she replied, ‘‘This is the
second time, I have voted
before.” Then I asked her
whom did she vote for?
She had just time to show
me her full hand thereby
signaling she had voted
for Congress whose
election symbol is a full
hand. After replying to my short
volley of questions, Priyanka and
family disappeared in the back of
the waiting ambassadors and the
cars screeched away.
For someone who had stepped
into the spotlight long before her
brother came on the scene, one can
just wait and watch for things to
happen from the younger sibling.
Gaurac S. Karir is a freelance
writer based in Dubai
The International Indian 83