A "Guns and Roses" Affair

One… two… the rose petals continued to drizzle. It reminded me of the scenes from a magnanimous epic Hindu mythological TV soaps, where the gods from the heaven blessed some holy incarnation on the face of the earth. This isn’t less an incarnation, I laughed within myself. Three… four… the Ray-bans covered their eyes but no one could skip their hawkish glares. These safari-clad and guns wielding army were dotting every square foot of the earth and were further mapping 360 degrees. Five… six… The lesser privileged khaki clad souls were busy hustling the bustling crowd. Cajoling the female folks and threatening the rowdy men, they had a task at hands of making way for the cavalcade. Seven… Eight… The bunch of toadies who had managed to hitchhike on some vehicle was having an experience of lifetime; as was evident form their expression on the faces. Nine… Ten… Ooph! I sighed, as I missed my count.

But determined that I was to enumerate the set of wheels, I started back for the vehicle leading the pack. As I counted on and on and on the number had reached 27, inclusive of couple of ambulances. Much more surprising was the site of hooter blaring police patrol cars. “What makes them the part of the cavalcade?” I wondered. Have these cops shed their political neutrality for larger personal gains or is it just duty calls? I chose to give them the benefit of doubt and believe that they were just performing their duty of protecting a VVIP who was out on his way to file his nomination for the upcoming General elections. Somehow I withheld myself from adding a few more Vs to the VVIP but guess I wouldn’t have been wrong if I had done so. Afterall he is been tauted the “Yuvraj of Bharatvarsh”.

The very mention of ‘the prince of Indian polity’ should make it clear as to whom I am talking about. After all for the zillions dotting the planes, mountains and deserts of my motherland have been overtly obsessed by the single clan a.k.a “Nehru-Gandhi family”. But just to take a leaf of from the congress policy of ‘minority appeasement’, and for the larger good of the ignorant minority who might be oblivious of the great Indian political tamasha, I am talking about the scion of the Gandhi family and if I may take the liberty of adding a few more adjectives as in the ‘messiah of India’, ‘the PM in waiting’, ‘Obama of India’, the one and only Rahul Rajiv Gandhi. So, the protagonist is identified and so is the situation.

The huge cavalcade is not something new, more so if you have been brought up in Goa. The Mickeys and Babushs of Goa are believed to directly relate the number of vehicles in their rally to their popularity. If it is to be believed, there is an unsaid competition amongst them, about the number and types of car that form the part of the rally. More the Pradas, CR-Vs, Mercs, Audis and BMWs behind you more the influential and powerful you are. Cutting long story short, these local leaders weren’t a match for Rahul neither was the parade.

Getting back to the more relevant incident, unlike the Goan version the cavalcade assumes more significance as this was not a victory march and was just the first step towards contesting the seat. However the die-hard congressmen would confidently argue that the congress tally is 1 the moment the congress candidate files his nomination from that constituency. And frankly even the most die-hard congress opponent should give in on this, the constituency in focus being a town in Sultanpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India a.k.a ‘Amethi’. It is known as the seat of power of the Indian Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. And why not? Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, his grandsons Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi (the sons of Indira Gandhi), as well as Rajiv's widow Sonia Gandhi have all represented this constituency. Rahul Gandhi himself was easily elected to the seat in the 2004 general elections, making him the fifth member of the family. And if my memory has not betrayed me, it’s the only constituency to have sent the most numbers of PMs to the Indian Parliament.

And probably the history was on the verge of repeating itself. That was evident from the exuberance of the people who had lined up all along the road to catch a glimpse of their representative. They had dared the mid-day sun just to cheer their candidate and wish him luck. And as if that was not enough, the rear door of the sleepishly moving armored Tata Safari opened and emerged the whitest white kurta clad and somewhat blonde ‘Rahul’. With him moving out of the safety of the bullet-proof cocoon, the body guards sprung in action. Amongst the AK-47s and the raining rose petals, now much more than before, each gesture of his was applauded and cheered. The scorching sun seemed to fail to sap out even a bit of excitement from the crowd as they cheered, waived and shouted slogans. They had been fanatic of their hero and they made no attempt to hide it. Just then the other door of the Tata Safari opened and emerged the mother of the candidate (will I be wrong if I chose to say ‘mother of mother India’?). Her sight just took the adrenaline levels amongst the crowd to new peaks as they jostled. It was a perfect setup for a rock concert. Just could not withhold myself from the wondering what if Sonia Gandhi would have crooning “Sweet child of mine”. Wouldn’t it have been a perfect Guns and Roses affair?