Flashback: No tit-for-tat politics for Rahul

This is an interview-based piece written in 2004 when Rahul contested for the first time as Lok Sabha candidate from Amethi.

Setting off to make his political debut and launch his campaign in Amethi, Rahul Gandhi is freshly shaved, crisply clad in white kurta-pyjama and red angavastram and feeling, he beams, "very good".

In an exclusive interview with Sagarika Ghose aboard the flight to Lucknow, Rahul said his agenda right now is limited to Amethi. "It’s only you guys in the media who are pushing me to other roles. As far as I’m concerned, my focus is winning Amethi and taking part in the campaign."

Is he the reluctant dynasty like his father was? "I’m young, I’m educated, I have ideas, and I consider it my fundamental right to work for my country. If it’s okay for criminals’ sons to enter politics, why is it not okay for me? Nobody will stop me from working for my country. You can insult me, kill me, be vicious about me, but my heart will always beat for India, just as my father’s did and my grandmother’s."

Rahul holds an M Phil in Economics from Trinity College, Cambridge, and has worked with Monitor Group, a consultancy firm set up by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School. Until a few months ago, he was running his own IT company, Strategy Consultancy, in Mumbai. "I’m the same man as I always was. The same man went to the US, the same man is now back in Amethi with my people."

Sagarika Ghose: What did he learn from grandmother and dad?

Rahul Gandhi: I barely saw my father. I saw him for one hour a day when he was in politics, and once in three days when he was a pilot. My mother was the one who hung out with my sister and me. My mother taught me to be Indian. My mother is an outcaste in Italy. I have so many Indian friends in the UK and US who hate India. They say India never gave us anything, we don’t want to go back. But my mother loves India even though she was born in Italy.

Sagarika Ghose: What’s his vision for India?

Rahul Gandhi: Let me tell you a story," he smiles. "You know I love talking to people. You guys don’t know me but I’m very talkative. In trains in the US I used to always talk to people and it struck me that nobody asked me anything beyond what work do you do. Nobody asks about caste, religion or community. That’s my vision for India, that’s the way I was brought up, to think of everyone as Indian. That’s why a force like Hindutva is un-Indian, because it sets up exclusive areas of Indian-ness in a civilisation which has never been that way.

Sagarika Ghose: So how will he fight Hindutva?

Rahul Gandhi: I have ideas. But I’m not going to tell you. I want to push India. The way everyone in America pushes America. In India everybody is pushing different things. I don’t think you should mess with religion and caste. You should definitely not mess with religion.

Caste, Rahul adds, is a very divisive force. "I applaud the caste passions of the Dalit community, I believe such passions are a democratic force, but they are being used for cynical ends."

His voice is confident, his manner easy and relaxed, there is an intimate, confiding air designed to disarm journalists and he laughs far more than the cameras have shown.

In contrast to Nehru, whereas Panditji was passionate and mercurial, Rahul seems affable and even-tempered.

"Everybody thought Nehru was driving this thing in those days. But he wasn’t. A whole lot of people were involved who shared a vision. Nehru gave us a lot of things: modernity, sensitivity to others, education. Yes, the leviathan state was a mistake but you can’t blame those guys for what they did. You can’t blame them with hindsight."

He waves away the drinks and breakfast and plunges heatedly into conversation. "My politics? I’m a pragmatist. I’m also young, so I think I can change things. Guys who have been doing the same thing for 30 years, they can’t change, but I believe I can."

Isn’t he worried he is seen as a Page 3 person? "I’m not a Page 3 person," Rahul shoots back. "When have you seen me at party?"

Sagarika Ghose: What about the Congress chances in UP, the BJP’s Shining India campaign? Does the Congress stand a chance? And isn’t his entry a sign of the party’s desperation?

Rahul Gandhi: Nobody can pressure me to do anything. I want to work for my country. My sister and me, you guys have no problem with us, right? We’re fully Indian. You agree we’re Indian, right? I’m fully Indian and I love this country. When I saw my father’s body, I thought he must have been proud in the end to die for this country. I don’t know about the elections or the Congress in UP. I’m a Congress member and right now I’m focused on Amethi.

Sagarika Ghose: What does he hope to communicate?

Rahul Gandhi: A sense of hope. A sense of change. An idea of India which I grew up with. There’s no Shining India, there’s so much poverty everywhere. So much needs to be done. I believe I can do it. There was a certain kind of commitment that my family has had. Like it or not, they’ve had it. I also have it.