Free Rahul by Jatin Gandhi, Veenu Sandhu

people had dreams of a better life. The slogan, it was felt, should connect with the common man and his aspirations, and at the same time question NDA’s claim that India was shining. At Rahul’s behest, the
aam aadmi
, replaced the Congress’s garib. And now, the Congress had its slogan: ‘
Congress ka haath, aam aadmi ke saath
(The hand of the Congress is with the common man).’ The question that the Congress posed at NDA’s India Shining campaign was simple: ‘
Aam aadmi ko kya mila
? (What did the common man get out of India Shining?)’ The question remained central to Rahul Gandhi’s politics in the years to follow. In 2009, while targeting NDA’s India Shining campaign, he said:
In 2004, they gave you a slogan, ‘India Shining’. And we gave you a slogan ‘government of common man’. ‘India Shining’ was in English and half of the population in India could not understand it … They did not go to the houses of the poor, the farmers, the Dalit and other weaker sections. They just went to the houses of the rich. We made just one promise—that we will work for the ‘
aam aadmi
’, farmers of Punjab,
mazdoor
[labourers], Dalit and it will be their government.
    In April 2004,
Outlook
quoted the Party strategist Jairam Ramesh saying that Rahul had taken personal interest in the Congress’s election manifesto. He had wanted it ‘sleekly packaged, reader-friendly, pictorial and full of action plans instead of promises’. Completely involved with the campaigning, he advised Sonia to concentrate on
jan sampark
(mass contact) programmes rather than focus her energy on holding rallies, a norm during election campaigns, where it is not unusual for the crowd to be paid to come to the venue. He also turned his attention to the Congress website and wanted it to reflect the Party’s plans and achievements. By now, many in the Congress had started to feel that even though Rahul did not have the kind of political exposure his younger sister did, he was better informed, extremely well-read and far-sighted. But several others were of the opinion that Priyanka knew the pulse of both the party worker and the voter much better than Rahul. And that she was more charismatic. They felt she had the ability to reach out to people and touch hearts, unlike Rahul who was not as spontaneous. ‘She knows where to stop the convoy and talk to the people,’ said a family associate. ‘She remembers people’s names and their problems. When she sees a familiar face in the crowd, she makes it a point to address that person by name. And what an impression that leaves!’ One of Priyanka’s loyalists also brings out a monthly magazine called the
World of Priyanka
. In fact, there are about half a dozen such cheaply brought out periodicals in Amethi and Rae Bareli with no fixed periodicity, eulogizing the Gandhi family.
    The suspense finally ended on 5 April 2004 when Rahul Gandhi filed his nomination papers for the Amethi constituency in Sultanpur. Sonia stood to his right. Priyanka stood behind him, her right arm stretched over his shoulder, holding the nomination papers in place for him. Rahul would contest the election. Priyanka would continue to campaign. With Rahul contesting from Amethi, Sonia shifted her constituency to Rae Bareli, a relatively tougher seat compared to Amethi. The writing was on the wall. Rahul was given a constituency which had been a Congress stronghold for decades; his victory was certain. The launch pad, the Congress knew, had to be firm; there was no way the Party could afford to have him lose his first election. Priyanka managed the campaign for both her mother and her brother. In March 2004, before he filed his nomination papers, Rahul visited Amethi with Priyanka who introduced him to the party workers there, saying, ‘He will look after you now.’
    The BJP started getting the jitters. It was easy to target Sonia, what with her shaky Hindi, limited political experience and, most importantly, foreign