Is it time for Priyanka Gandhi to claim her stakes in the political space? DW takes a look...

It was a balmy day in March 2008 when a determined Priyanka entered the gates of Vellore Central jail in Tamil Nadu to come face to face with a woman inmate serving a life sentence for being part of the conspiracy to kill her father Rajiv Gandhi. It was almost 17 years ago that her father was blown to bits by a woman suicide bomber said to be from the LTTE. The woman prisoner Nalini Sriharan was one of the arrested for the brutal killing.

Priyanka was barely 19 when she lost her father in this violent manner. But the girl was only 12 when her grandmother Indira Gandhi was shot down by her own bodyguards at her Safdarjang home in New Delhi. She was eight when her uncle Sanjay Gandhi died when his two-seater aircraft crashed at Safdarjang airport. For a girl still in her teens to have witnessed three violent deaths in the family could have left her scarred for life. Yet Priyanka found it in herself to take that bold step across the jail gates to face a woman responsible for the father’s death, to hold her and to forgive her. It must have takenamazing courage. It shows her strength and fortitude.

What is clear is that only a powerful emotion would have driven Priyanka to look into the face of a member of the assassination squad that killed her father. It would have required great inner strength to feel compassion for the guilty. Shorn of politics, it was a magnificent act in an age of mediocrity. For the dynasty that steered independent India’s “tryst with destiny”, this visit to a prison by a daughter seeking answers was a compelling moment of truth.

But it didn’t come easy. Priyanka remembers: In the beginning when my father was killed, I didn’t realise it, but I was furious. I was absolutely furious inside. I was furious not with particular individuals who killed him, but I was furious with the whole world.

It was a very slow process. It was realising that you’re angry… I think the whole thing about this whole business of forgiveness is really, at some level, we all consider ourselves victims. Maybe it can be a case of someone being nasty to us, or someone would have done something like kill someone we love, which is a bigger thing and then we consider ourselves victims. But the minute you realise that you’re not a victim and that the other person is as much victim of that same circumstance as you, then you can’t put yourself in a position where you are able to forgive someone else. Because your victimhood has disappeared! And to me, people ask about non-violence, I think truenon-violence is the absence of victimhood.”

Grief and forgiveness. Rage and repentance. Tears and atonement. It could have been the stuff of great world literature, maybe even a Dostoevsky novel in another time, were it not a riveting piece of contemporary news. Was this just an act of wanting to come to terms or did she still have questions about her father’s death? Apparently one of her seething questions to Nalini was: Why? Why my father?

Congressmen must have been delighted that Priyanka came through looking so good, strong and magnanimous. They must have hoped that this could be the turning point which could initiate her journey into politics. But it was not to be. She was clear politics was not for her. As she was to say later, having grown up in the shadows of a powerful lady, she was deeply influenced by her grandmother Indira Gandhi. It was natural that she would follow in the family’s footsteps. She had early on showed signs of her natural ease of being in public life. Her father Rajiv too had admitted that it was she among her two children - Rahul and Priyanka — who would be the natural political heir

But Priyanka struggled with her inner self to give expression to what she wanted and not what others expected of her. She says, “Everyone expected me to and so did I want to, but I was confused, not sure. There was a time when I was a kid, when I was about 16-17 when I thought this is absolutely what I want to do with my life but I think I wasn’t very clear about my own identity. In 1999 it was a question in my mind, whether I would want to stand for elections or not. So I did some thinking, and I realised I didn’t.”

Priyanka recalls it was not easy to come to that decision. She was troubled by the burden and not knowing how to deal with it she went away for 10 days. “Actually, I went for Vipassana meditation. I was so troubled by the fact that I didn’t know my mind, I just disappeared and went for 10 days of meditation, to better know my own mind, rather than what other people want of me

She came back with a clarity that she didn’t want to be in politics. “I was very happy living my life the way I was. I think there are certain aspects of politics which I’m just not suited to. I grew into myself. Earlier my own identity was a bit confused, because I did idealise my grandmother, I grew up in a household where she was the head and she was an extremely powerful woman. Not only politically powerful, but she was a powerful human being to be around. So being a little girl and seeing this woman who was strong and stood for so much, it did have an effect on me. So I think my own identity was confused until a certain point and when I discovered that - ‘Hey, Priyanka is actually this’ — then I realised that this is not for me.

It may have been Priyanka Vadra’s way of dealing with her personal pain, but many prominent figures in our civil society say news of her poignant meeting with her father’s killer, Nalini Sriharan, in Vellore jail had injected some much-needed humanity into our public life and would hopefully engender a culture of reconciliation. “For the first time, a public leader has tried to wipe out the memory of public violence instead of trying to avenge it through the courts,” says psychoanalyst and sociologist Ashis Nandy. “Her gesture will inspire victims of violence to make peace and get on with life in a more healthy state of mind.”/p>

Priyanka’s once-estranged aunt, writer Nayantara Sahgal, says, “I don’t know about the nation, but I for one think she did a very good and moving thing. That tradition of refusing to nurse anger and vengeance is something we learnt from Gandhi and his freedom struggle. This family still believes in that tradition and we were brought up on it.” The reason why Priyanka’s visit moved the nation, according to Sahgal, was “it was a simple gesture. More than ever, we need such acts of non-violence, which in my view is the only ultimate deterrent in our race towards self-destruction.”

This great act of Priyanka speaks a lot about her as a person and her mind as a thinker. Vipassana and Buddhism have helped Priyanka overcome the many trials and tribulations of life. Recently in a rare interview she said, “I don’t think I would be able to have a normal quiet life if I was in active politics. When I am not helping my mother or brother in their constituencies, I am making cupcakes for my two kids and buying groceries

But of late, every time the Congress party loses an election or is getting ready for a big battle the usual chorus for Priyanka lao, Congress bachao is inevitable. Many party state units a few years ago went ahead and put up banners in her favour hoping to precipitate the issue. But it was not to be. “I have said it a thousand times, I am not interested in joining politics,” Priyanka Gandhi once famously told the BBC.

This time around too, with the vital Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and four other states under way, the call for Priyanka lao reached a crescendo. In fact it seemed that the mystery over her political ‘to be or not to be’ was going to be put to rest with a lot of excitement that she would play a larger role in the UP campaign. But as election days got closer that seemed once again, only wishful thinking. She did address a few rallies in the family pocket borough of Amethi and quietly returned to Delhi. Now it is being said that she has taken charge of the backroom campaign management instead of being the party’s public face.

Is there a subtle attempt still about to let Rahul Gandhi enjoy the credit if the party’s alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) can pull of a defining show a la the Bihar victory? Priyanka is without doubt the Congress trump card, and if it is played, then surely the credit or the loss would have to be shouldered by her. Is the family still hoping the son will come up trumps instead? After all Mama Sonia much like our Indian mothers is said to prefer that her son makes a mark once she decides to step down

Priyanka is unmissable in a crowd, a striking figure in her handloom saris with a manner similar to her dadi Indira Gandhi. Yet unlike her grandmother who was once called ‘zoon politikon’ or political animal by former West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Priyanka has always professed a steadfast reluctance to plunge into politics and been almost squeamishly wary of becoming a politician. At the moment she’s still a novelty. She has natural charisma and comes across as straightforward and communicative. Yet given her lack of experience and the fact that she’s now decided not to campaign across Uttar Pradesh and will remain confined to Amethi and Rae Bareli, her political impact is likely to be marginal

Congress believes Priyanka’s resemblance to Indira Gandhi will be enough to draw in the crowds and votes. But Indira had spent two decades in and around politics before she became prime minister. Nehru’s daughter fought a bitter battle for supremacy with party bosses; she wasn’t offered supreme power on a platter. Besides, politics in India is now far more competitive.

The Congress almost kept Priyanka as a reserve or weapon of last resort much like the Brahmastra in Mahabharat, a weapon of mass destruction created by Brahma. But only time will tell whether the Priyanka 'Brahmastra' will work after all. In the late 90s, when Sonia Gandhi stepped into electoral politics, the Congress remained almost stagnant. Though a lot of hype had surrounded Sonia Gandhi's dramatic appearance, she failed to make any difference to the party's fortunes. Priyanka too could disappoint, even turn out worse than her brother.

But, for the Congress, Priyanka Gandhi is indeed an idea whose time has come. Whatever be the outcome of the expected ploy, it will immediately inject new life in the Congress veins. Its workers will get a sense of direction, the party a new face and voters the option of looking at a Rahulmukt Congress. Comparisons with leaders of other parties can wait, but in a toss up between the Gandhi siblings, Priyanka is the clear winner

Since the time Priyanka has campaigned, she has rarely spoken about women or their concerns. However, this time around, Priyanka, taking the stand for the women at a recent rally in UP, therefore revealed a different side to her - a glimmer, perhaps, of the symbol she could become for women’s empowerment. There is, of course, nothing to confirm that she will think about the possibility of it - what if she did?

Certainly, there are no questions of her likability. She’s known for her charm and subtle wit, which convinces many that if she wanted to, she could supersede Rahul Gandhi. Think about it though, in the realm of cutthroat politics anchored in centuries-old patriarchy, this country has seen some strong women leaders (Indira Gandhi, Jayalalithaa, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee to name a few), but none of them can be considered strong feminist icons

Perhaps, it’s time that this country spawns a leader who is a vocal and fierce women’s rights advocate. While it’s commendable that Priyanka highlighted the issue of gender equality, so to speak, at the rally, it would be far more hard-hitting if these issues were talked about more often on other occasions, not only when there were votes to bank on

Whatever the outcome of the next round of elections, it is highly unlikely that the Congress ‘Princess’ will be ready in the near future to carry the family baton forward. But then as Priyanka said in reply to that very repetitive question which she so deftly deflects: “As I am growing older, I’m realising that ‘never’ is a bad thing to say. So I’m not going to say never!”