Rahul Gandhi

Infobox_Indian_politician


name = Rahul Gandhi
caption =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1970|6|19|df=y
birth_place = New Delhi, Delhi
residence = New Delhi
marital status =Unmarried ,Single
Official Status =National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the Youth Congress.
constituency = Amethi , Uttar Pradesh
office = Congress General Secretary as on Monday the 24th September 2007
salary =--
term =
predecessor =
successor =
party = Indian National Congress
spouse =
children =
religion =
website =
email =
footnotes =
date = 23 August
year = 2008 |
source = http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsmember/biodata.asp?mpsno=4074

Rahul Gandhi (born 19 June 1970) is an Indian politician and member of the Parliament of India, representing the Amethi constituency. [cite web
title = Gandhi detergent washes away caste
publisher = "The Times of India"
author = Vidya Subrahmaniam
date = 18 April 2004
url = http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/623458.cms
accessdate = 2007-02-09 ] His political party is the Indian National Congress. [cite web
title = Charisma Is Not Enough
publisher = "Newsweek International"
author = Sudip Mazumdar
date = 25 December 2006
url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16241337/site/newsweek/
accessdate = 2007-02-09 ]

Biography

Family

Rahul is a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the most prominent political family in India. He is the son of current Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991. Gandhi was 14 years old when his grandmother, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated by her security guards. His great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first Prime Minister of India, and his great-great-grandfather Motilal Nehru was a distinguished leader of the Indian independence movement. [cite web
title = Does Congress want to perpetuate Nehru-Gandhi dynasty?
publisher = "Samachar"
author = M.V.Kamath
date =
url = http://www.samachar.com/features/290905-features.html
accessdate = 2007-02-09 ] In 2004, he reportedly had a Spanish girlfriend, an architect whom he met in England. [ [http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=30839 Indian Express] ]

Education and career before politics

Rahul Gandhi attended St.Columba's School, New Delhicite web
title = Rahul Gandhi: Up Close & Personal
publisher = "Rediff.com"
author = George Iype
date = 23 March 2004
url = http://www.rediff.com/election/2004/mar/23espec1.htm
accessdate = 2007-02-09 ] before entering the The Doon School. The Doon School had been his father's "alma mater". [cite web
title = Indian Politician - Profile of Rajiv Gandhi
publisher =
author =
date =
url = searchindia.com/search/indian-politicians-rajiv-gandhi.html
accessdate = 2007-02-09 ] Rahul Gandhi attended Doon from 1981-83 before being home-schooled for security reasons.Fact|date=February 2007 His admission to St Stephen's College was controversial as he was believed to have been admitted on the basis of his abilities as a competitive pistol shooter, which was disputed.Fact|date=February 2007 He left the school in 1990, after one year of education.

It is reported that Harvard alumni records list him as attending between 1990 and 1993 but not as completing a degree. [ [http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl2108/stories/20040423004503400.htm "The Hindu" Frontline magazine] , 10-23 April 2004] . He transferred, reportedly due to security concerns following his father's assassination, to Rollins College in Florida where he completed a B.A. in 1994 [" [http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1902159,0008.htm The Hindustan Times] ", 16 January 2007] . During the parliamentary elections in 2004, Gandhi claimed that he had received an MPhil in Development Economics after attending Trinity College, Cambridge. Media enquiries report that he attended under the alias "Raul Vinci".

He worked in London with the strategy consultancy firm Monitor Group [ cite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2004/apr/13rajeev.htm|title=The Great White Hope: The Son Also Rises] , before returning to India in late 2002 to run an engineering and technology outsourcing firm in Mumbai [ [http://www.rediff.com/money/2004/jun/24rahul.htm Want to be CEO of Rahul Gandhi's firm? ] ] .

Political career

In 2003, there was widespread media speculation about Gandhi's imminent entry into national politics, which he did not confirm.Fact|date=February 2007 He appeared with his mother at public events and Congress meetings.Fact|date=June 2007 He also travelled to Pakistan on a goodwill visit to watch the first series between the countries in 14 years in an One Day International with his sister Priyanka Gandhi. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4368099.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | Musharraf mother meets Indian PM ] ]

Speculation heightened in January 2004 about him and his sister's possible entry into politics when they visited their father's former constituency of Amethi, which their mother held at the time. He refused to give a definitive response, stating "I am not averse to politics. I have not decided when I will enter politics and indeed, if I ever will." [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3557045.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | Gandhi fever in Indian heartlands ] ]

In March 2004, he announced his entry into politics by announcing that he would contest the May 2004 elections, standing for his father's former constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of Parliament. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3619123.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | Rahul attacks 'divisive' politics ] ] Before that, his uncle Sanjay held the seat before a plane crash. The seat had been held by his mother until she transferred to the neighbouring seat of Rae Bareilly. The Congress had been doing poorly in Uttar Pradesh, holding only 10 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state at the time. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3557045.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | Gandhi fever in Indian heartlands ] ] At the time, this move generated surprise among political commentators, who had regarded his sister Priyanka as being the more charismatic and likely to succeed. Party officials did not have a CV ready for the media, such was the surprise of his move. It generated speculation that the presence of a young member of India's most famous political family would reinvigorate the Congress party's political fortunes among India's youthful population [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3560771.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | The riddle of Rahul Gandhi ] ] In his first interview with foreign media, he portrayed himself as a uniter of the country and condemned "divisive" politics in India, saying that he would try to reduce caste and religious tensions. His candidacy was greeted with excitement by locals, who had a long standing affinity with the family's presence in the area.

He won with a landslide majority, retaining the family stronghold with a margin of over 100,000 as the Congress unexpectedly defeated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3711881.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | India elections: Good day - bad day ] ] His campaign was directed by his younger sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.Fact|date=February 2007Till 2006 he held no other office and concentrated mainly on constituency issues and the politics of Uttar Pradesh, and it was widely speculated in the Indian and international press that Sonia Gandhi is trying to groom him for a chance to become a national-level Congress leader in the future. [ [http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040822/main1.htm "The Tribune"] , Chandigarh, 21 August 2004; [http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060520/asp/nation/story_6246911.asp "The Telegraph India"] , 20 May 2006; [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3726221.stm BBC News] , 26 May 2004.]

In January 2006, at a convention of the Indian National Congress in Hyderabad, thousands of party members asked for Gandhi to take a more prominent leadership role in the party and demanded that he address the delegates. He said "I appreciate and I am grateful for your feelings and support. I assure you I will not let you down", but asked for patience and declined to immediately seek a higher profile role. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4639494.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | Rahul Gandhi declines party role ] ]

Gandhi and his sister managed their mother's campaign for reelection to Rae Bareilly in 2006, which was won easily with a margin greater than 400,000 votes. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4761871.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | India's communists upbeat over future ] ]

He was a prominent figure in a high profile Congress campaign for the 2007 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections; Congress, however, won only 22 seats with 8.53% of votes. The election saw the Bahujan Samaj Party, which represents low caste Indians, to become the first party to govern in its own right in Uttar Pradesh for 16 years. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6643953.stm BBC NEWS | South Asia | Uttar Pradesh low caste landslide ] ]

Rahul Gandhi was appointed a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee on 24 September 2007 in a reshuffle of the party secretariat. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7010099.stm|title=Rahul Gandhi gets Congress post|date=2007-19-24|accessdate=2007-09-24|publisher=BBC News] . In the sam reshuffle, he was also given charge of the Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India. [cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/25/stories/2007092550240100.htm| title=Rahul Gandhi gets Youth Congress Charge|date=2007-19-25|accessdate=2007-09-25|publisher=The Hindu]

=

Rahul Gandhi's legal affairs team has taken a number of legal measures to prevent damage to his image. For example, when Newsweek alleged in late 2006 that he had not completed his degrees at Harvard and Cambridge or kept his job at the Monitor Group, they were slapped with a legal notice, following which they hastily retracted or qualified their earlier statements. [ [http://www.indianexpress.com/story/21088.html Newsweek apologises to Rahul Gandhi] ]

Criticism

Rahul Gandhi counted the 1971 break-up of Pakistan among his family's "achievements". This statement invited criticism from several political parties in India, as well as from notable people in Pakistan including the Foreign Office spokesperson [cite news | title = Pakistan resents Rahul's remarks | publisher = The hindu | last = Subramanian | first = Nirupama | date = April 16, 2007 | url = http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/16/stories/2007041610070100.htm] . Well-known historian Irfan Habib remarked that the comments were "..an insult to the Bangladesh movement. Rahul is free to say whatever he wants to, but in a democratic country playing up family is certainly not in good taste." [ [http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=5d70699a-87f6-415a-83ab-63639f5056d2&ParentID=c27b8fd0-ef9a-46c8-b6ba-28ad019ddda8& Islamic clerics fume over Rahul remarks] Hindustan Times - April 16, 2007] .Also that he has done nothing to get the real message of Jawaharlal Nehru on farmers ;to the masses in spite of the engravings at Shantivana on Nehruji's Samadhi.It is also amazing that the real date of Death ie.27-5-1964 of Jawahar Lal Nehru finds no place in the entire expanse of Shantivan ,defeating the purpose of the samadhi of Shri Jawahar Lal Nehru. [ [http://bhatiyajantatalji.blogspot.com/2008/08/nehrujis-tryst-with-destiny-in.html] Nehruji's tryst with destiny] .

During the Uttar Pradesh election campaign in 2007 he said that "if anyone from the Gandhi-Nehru family had been active in politics then, the Babri Masjid would not have fallen". This was interpreted as an attack on P.V. Narasimha Rao, the Prime Minister during the demolition of the mosque in 1992. Gandhi's statement triggered a controversy with some members of BJP, the Samajwadi Party and the Left dubbing him as both "anti-Hindu" and "anti-Muslim" [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1856122.cms I appreciate Narasimha Rao: Rahul Gandhi] Times of India - April 4, 2007] .His remarks on freedom fighters and the Nehru-Gandhi family have been criticized by BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu who asked "Will the Gandhi family take responsibility for imposition of emergency?" [ [http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=c27b8fd0-ef9a-46c8-b6ba-28ad019ddda8& BJP takes strong exception to Rahul's statement] Hindustan Times - April 15, 2007.]

His discovering India tours and time to time voices of Nehru- Gandhi Family loyalists to make him Prime Minister like Senior Minister Arjun Singh who aired this demand and try to alternate Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister of India. Fact|date=September 2008

ee also

* Indian National Congress
* Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty

References

External links