Robert Vadra: Politics is in the heir

India Today

14-07-2025

(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated Feb 20, 2012)The oldest political dynasty in India has a new dynast. On February 6, Robert Vadra, 42, chose Rae Bareli, the headquarters of Gandhi Inc, political home of Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, to announce his ambitions. Astride a motorcycle, he declared: "If people want, I can join politics.'' The people did not reply; and the Congress party was a bit hesitant about its reaction. Most Congressmen were stunned. Loyalty lines were blurring.advertisementRahul Gandhi, 41, was their chosen leader, and sister Priyanka, 40, a support rather than threat. What would her husband Robert constitute? In public perception, Rae Bareli had been allotted to Priyanka. She was seen as the natural successor to the family seat. Vadra has disrupted all calculations; the unspoken worry is that Vadra has developed prime ministerial ambitions and is now ready to voice them.Priyanka, who was campaigning in Amethi, 60 km away, blamed the media for asking her husband a golmatol (roundabout) question. She understood the implications, because a dynasty cannot have two heirs without Mughal-style war eventually breaking out. "He (Vadra) is a successful businessman and has no time for politics,'' she said. But her successful businessman refused to back down. In yet another interview, this time to a news channel, he reiterated his statement: "I think there is a time and place for everything. The day I feel that I can make a difference for the people, and the people would like me representing them... That calling will come at some stage, I feel.''
This was as plain as ambition can get. Suddenly Vadra, who has spent 15 years in the shadows, did not look apologetic about space in the limelight. His two children Raihan, 11, and Miraya, 9, came with him on this first solo foray into Rae Bareli. Since 1999, when he started accompanying the family on election campaigns. The man who once drove his brother-in-law Rahul's car seems to be seeking the driver's seat.Congress leaders are apprehensive about Vadra's move from Page 3 to Page 1. Adjectives like loose cannon are being used to describe Vadra, supplementing the familiar analogy between him and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto. Local Congress leaders in Rae Bareli have noticed the change in Vadra. Kalyan Singh Gandhi, 45, a Congress leader who has worked with the family for the past two decades, says Vadra wanted to create an impact in this election and asked for an individual event befitting his style. "So I organised the bike rally for him in Salon reserved constituency in Rae Bareli. Vadraji addressed two rallies before getting on the bike,'' Kalyan told India Today. The rally was officially in support of the local candidate Shiv Balak Pasi, who rode pillion on Vadra's bike. But it was in truth a coming-out party.advertisementVadra also rode into controversy for violating the model code of conduct when the District Election Officer Pawan Sain stopped him. The 2005 batch IAS officer was promptly issued a transfer order even though the Election Commission (EC) claimed the order had been issued days earlier. However, the EC later said that Sain would stay on till the polls were over.Vadra has benefited from his association with the Gandhi family. Some privileges are minor but irritants in the public eye. For instance, the exemption from pre-embarkation security check at all the airports of the country. There are 31 categories of exemption, Vadra is the only one named, a category of his own. The remaining 30 are defined by rank and post.Since his marriage, Vadra's business has grown exponentially. His father Rajinder Vadra ran a brassware export business in Moradabad. Young Vadra started Artex, a handicrafts and fashion accessories business in 1997, the year he got married. In earlier interviews, he has spoken of how he went door to door selling samples. "It's not easy to set up a business from scratch. I went to Chawri Bazar and into the galis of Old Delhi to find my suppliers. I travelled the world with a bag of samples, went door to door to find buyers. I got pushed away many times but I persisted. And we have done very well. We have come a long way,'' he told a paper in 2010.advertisementHis brass-to-gold story is now in the public domain. In March 2011, a pink paper reported details about his "quiet and unheralded entry'' into the real estate business, including a partnership and wide-ranging transactions with the country's biggest realty firm, DLF. According to the paper, Vadra scaled up and diversified his business in 2007, acquiring tracts of land in Haryana and Rajasthan, a 50 per cent stake in a leading business hotel in Delhi, and attempting an entry into the business of charter aircraft. Several of his companies have received loans, some of them unsecured, from DLF Group companies.Vadra responded to the report, saying that his association with DLF stemmed from a long-standing friendship with the family that controls the realty giant. "I have known the DLF people for a long time and they are friends of mine. I had wanted to invest in real estate and one thing led to another,'' he said. He took pains to clarify that he was doing things on his own. DLF claimed that the "business relationship of DLF Group with Vadra has been in his capacity as an individual entrepreneur and on a completely transparent and arms-length basis" So far, Vadra's growing empire has escaped public scrutiny because he has remained a private individual. If he becomes a claimant for legislature and office, he will have to abandon that privilege.advertisementVadra returned to Delhi with Priyanka on the evening of February 6 after his news-making trip to Rae Bareli. Priyanka hit the campaign trail again on February 9. There is no word on Vadra's plans. Sources say the embarrassed Congress is looking for a way to rein in the son-in-law. "He has stolen the limelight from Rahul. Whatever gains Congress has made because of Rahul's efforts will come to naught if damage control is not done,'' rues a Congress leader.Rahul has infused some life into a dead Uttar Pradesh Congress but Vadra has put the party on the backfoot. At the Centre too, the Congress leadership is not sure how to deal with Vadra; marriage creates obvious sensitivities. Questions remain in the mind: does Vadra have Sonia Gandhi's permission? Is he putting pressure on his wife? The official party line was offered by General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. "People have interpreted Vadra's statement in a different context, I have nothing to add after Priyanka Gandhi's clarification on her husband's political ambitions,'' said Singhvi. He did not comment on Vadra's statements made in the wake of Priyanka's clarification.advertisementVadra's statements over the years, indicate that politics has always been a temptation, although his claimed focus is on his business, which he runs from his old 268, Sukhdev Vihar home in South Delhi. Maybe the time has come, in his calculation, for the crossover step. His business is flourishing and his persona familiar to media. He loves a party, whether it is at LAP night club or F-Bar at Ashok Hotel. He is not averse to being photographed in body-hugging black leather, which even earned him the Best Dressed Man Award from a city supplement in December 2011.A fitness fanatic, he is obsessed with his body, which he loves to display-be it in a fitness glossy or on his Facebook profile. He loves the toys that money can buy, and has an array of luxury cars, including a black 500 SEL Mercedes, a top-end BMW and a recently acquired Range Rover. Being protected by the Special Protection Group by virtue of marriage to Priyanka, he travels in style: his car is preceded by a pilot Gypsy with five Delhi Police commandos and followed by another Gypsy. In 2011, he purchased five top-end bikes-Hayabusa, Harley-Davidson and Ducati-though his friendly bike rides with brother-in-law Rahul have now ceased.Vadra has never been far from the headlines. Highs or lows, his life has been full of quirks and controversies. His uncle ran a school sponsored by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at the family farmhouse in Moradabad. He disassociated himself from his father Rajinder and brother Richard through a public legal notice in January 2002. He alleged that they were promising jobs and favours using his name and association with the Gandhi family. His late father sued Vadra for defamation.In April 2009, his father was found dead in a rundown Yusuf Sarai motel during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The police said it appeared to be a suicide. Nothing was proven. His brother Richard committed suicide in September 2003 in Moradabad at the family's home. Vadra's sister Michelle died in a car accident on the Delhi-Jaipur highway in April 2001.Vadra is close to his mother Maureen, an Anglo-Indian of Scottish origin, who is a director in his five companies established after 2007. Priyanka was a founder-director in one of his companies, Blue Breeze Trading Pvt Ltd, set up in 2007 for chartering aircraft. However, she disassociated herself from the company and ceased to be a director in July 2008. Of late, Vadra has been spending a lot of time travelling, mostly to Dubai and England, leading some to claim that he might have acquired NRI status. When in India, he is said to divide his time equally between his luxury apartment at DLF Aralias in Gurgaon, and the couple's home in Delhi's Lutyens' Zone, Lodi Estate.Priyanka, who has earned herself the sobriquet of barsaati mendak (monsoon frog) seen only during elections, is focusing on bringing up their two children. She is trying to ensure a normal childhood for them, even saying in an interview that she loves baking cupcakes for them. She is a good, sensible mother. Studying in The Shri Ram School in Delhi, the children are believed to be well-behaved, disciplined and fuss-free. Priyanka makes it a point to attend all parent-teacher meetings and is active in the school's Parent-Teacher Association.Seeking peace of mind, Priyanka has been practising Vipassana (meditation) for over a decade. She has also completed a master's degree in Buddhism. She also met Nalini, her father Rajiv Gandhi's assassin, in Vellore jail in 2008 "to make peace with the violence'' in her life. "I refuse to let anger and violence overpower me,'' she explained in an interview later.Vadra has, till now, been careful about separating the personal and the political but he has managed to inadvertently pit himself against Priyanka, the darling of the Congress, this time. The party would prefer Priyanka to become the candidate from Rae Bareli if Sonia Gandhi retires because of health reasons. In 2011, he told the paper that published his business links that he does "not try to benefit from my family". "I never take obligations from people because if I do, they will ask me for something bigger in return... People can imagine all kinds of things about me but people who matter to me know me and know how I am." Now, it seems he wants the world at large to know too.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- Ends