Waiting for Rahul - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality - page 182

and had no answers to specific questions that he was asked about how to solve clashes
between the central government and the states, and what to do about inadequate water sup-
plies.
He needed, however, to do much more than simply talk about grassroots power to restore
the dynasty's image that was steadily declining. This had been demonstrated the previous
October with Kejriwal's allegations about Robert Vadra's business dealings. The family,
it seemed, was becoming vulnerable to personal attacks, albeit only against someone who
had married into the family rather than a member of the dynasty. It raised questions about
whether Sonia's protective chakra was becoming vulnerable. 31 Dipankar Gupta, a sociolo-
gist, suggested that the Vadra attack indicated the collapse of a 'taboo' in Indian politics
about exposing and naming members of the dynasty, though he followed taboo traditions
and only wrote 'R for Robert' to indicate who he was writing about and did not use the
words Vadra, Priyanka, Sonia, or the Gandhi dynasty, choosing instead to refer to a 'par-
ticular family'. 32 Yogendra Yadav, a political pollster and pundit who became a member
of Kejriwal's political party, praised the revelations because they had 'violated a code of
silence observed in Delhi's corridors of power'.

Different Priorities

During this time, it gradually emerged that Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had different priorities.
Sonia wanted to maintain the old Congress systems of dynasty and patronage that had
allowed her to emerge and reign supreme, along with economic policies based on aid
schemes designed to help the poor while doing little or nothing to lift them out of their
lot. Rahul shared that economic vision for short-term electoral benefits, believing that the
poor would then vote for the Congress. But he was mainly focused on reforming the way
the party was run and empowering people both in the party and outside to develop their
futures. That vision is not based on conventional economic reforms favoured by the trio of
Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, but on empowering local
villages to run their own affairs and by developing grassroots voluntary organizations and
self-help groups.
Sonia's determination was illustrated in August 2013 when she made a rare speech in the
Lok Sabha to introduce a Food Security Bill against the wishes and advice of senior minis-
ters and economic advisers. Politicians in India usually give bangles, saris, electrical goods
and even laptops away at election time in order to woo voters, but Gandhi raised the bar
with the handouts that increased the government's food aid bill to $20bn a year. 33 'There
are people who ask whether we have the means to implement this scheme. I would like to
say that we have to figure out the means. The question is not whether we can do it or not.
We have to do it,' she said in parliament 34 in a speech that hit the value of the rupee and