The other scion of the Gandhi family, Feroze Varun Gandhi, was back in the news this week with his cousin and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launching an unprovoked attack on him. Rahul said there was no place for Varun in the Congress because he had accepted the RSS ideology, which is antithetical to what the party stands for.
Rahul’s vituperative outburst surprised many because Varun had been increasingly distancing himself from the Sangh Parivar and the BJP by consistently taking anti-government and anti-Sangh positions. He has been speaking against hate speech and attempts to divide people on the basis of religion. This is the same Varun who spent three weeks in jail in 2009 when he was booked under the NSA for giving a hate speech against Muslims. However, the Supreme Court quashed the charges due to lack of evidence.
Varun has been a maverick. A London School of Economics graduate who became the first Asian-origin president of its students’ union, he was the youngest Member of Parliament of the BJP when he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009. He quickly climbed the political ladder and became the BJP’s youngest-ever general secretary at 32 in 2012.
But after Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister in 2014, the political fortunes of Varun and his mother Maneka Gandhi took a downward turn. Maneka was denied a ministerial berth in 2019, and Varun became a pariah in the BJP. He was dropped from the party’s national executive. Modi’s second term saw the young Gandhi becoming more critical of his government’s policies. In a recent speech in his parliamentary constituency, Varun launched a direct attack by asking the Prime Minister to focus on filling up the one crore vacant posts in the government sector rather than promising to create 10 lakh new jobs.
Over the years, Varun has followed his own path that often went against his party line. In 2012, he introduced a private member’s Jan Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha against the wishes of his party. In 2017, he introduced another private member’s bill seeking an institutional mechanism for raising the salaries of the MPs. In his speech on the bill, Varun said MPs could not arrogate the right to increase their wages by raising their hands. The then finance minister, Arun Jaitley, took cognisance of his demand and created an institutional setup for hikes based on inflation, performance, etc.
Not many in his party liked the way he pushed for the reform. Varun has not drawn a single month’s salary since becoming an MP in 2009. He donates his salary to the families of farmers who have committed suicide. He writes to the Lok Sabha every month, conveying the name of the person whose account his salary is to be credited. Varun had joined the farmers’ protest when they gathered on the borders of Delhi, demanding the repeal of the three farm laws passed by his government. He was among a handful of MPs from the BJP who openly spoke in favour of the protesting farmers. He spoke in favour of MSP for all crops.
Then he took a stand against his party’s line on issues such as the Agniveer programme, Rohingyas refugees, etc. He opposed the Agniveer programme saying that the Army is a sacred institution and it should not be run on contract. On Rohingyas, he has argued that India has a large heart and has given refuge to Tibetan Buddhists in Dharamshala and to Bangladeshi Hindus after the 1971 war. So why can’t it give shelter to Rohingyas who were facing genocide in Myanmar?
On the recent tussle between the government and the judiciary over the powers to appoint judges, he backed the judiciary saying it is better to have an imperfect judiciary than to have a biased and committed one.
His opposition to the BJP’s economic policies, including privatisation, and his continuous attack on the government over issues faced by farmers, students, contract workers and the poor in general has led to chatter about his plan to leave the BJP. It was in this context that Rahul was asked a question if Varun would join the Congress.
Married to Yamini, the great-granddaughter of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, former president of the Congress, Varun divides his time between family and politics. He is also a prolific writer who contributes regular columns in leading dailies. In the time left after this, he writes poetry. He has also written a book titled Rural Manifesto.
A deep dive into Varun’s political career and public life shows that his politics are closer to the centre-left and far from the RSS-BJP’s right-wing approach. So what is Rahul Gandhi complaining about?