Speculation grows over Rahul ‘adopting’ Rehan -- Pankaj Vohra

here is speculation within top Congress circles on whether Rahul Gandhi is adopting his sister Priyanka's son, Rehan, so as to enable him to use the Gandhi surname. Rehan, who had taken admission at Doon School in Dehra Dun sometime ago, had initially started writing his name as Rehan Gandhi, but changed it back to Vadra when some fellow students wanted to know why he was using the Gandhi surname. The speculation about a possible adoption further gained currency when Rahul, during a visit to Uttarakhand last year after the Kedarnath shrine floods, stopped by at the school and took Rehan for an outing. The two share a very close bond. A Congress source claimed that Rahul's name is registered as Rehan's guardian in the school records, which have been kept confidential and are not open to public scrutiny given that the family has a special security cover.

Fourteen-year-old Rehan visited Parliament House on Wednesday accompanied by two friends. He observed the Lok Sabha proceedings from the Speaker's Gallery and visited the Congress office as also the office of his grandmother Sonia Gandhi. Mrs Sonia Gandhi was present in the House when he watched Union ministers Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar answer queries during the Question Hour.

Sources said that Rehan's "adoption" by Rahul may be kept as an extremely guarded secret by the family as it would be aimed at finalising the succession plan amongst the Gandhis, given that the Congress vice president continues to be a bachelor and has no plans to marry in the immediate future, though reports of his friendships with several women including the daughter of a slain head of government and a prominent South Indian film actress keep surfacing once in a while. According to informed sources, Rahul had spent quality time with a friend in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California just before the commencement of the budget session. In order to evade attention, the two were reported to have flown to the US via the Pacific route instead of going through Europe. However, such reports are denied by those close to Rahul, who say that it was work, not leisure, that made him travel abroad.

Intelligence sources also claim that Rahul has often been seen in the company of the daughter of a deceased head of government of an Asian country. The lady is, for record, married to a Swiss national and has a very young son. The two had first met in New Delhi and later met frequently in Dubai.

Sources close to the Gandhis have refused to confirm whether Rahul had indeed legally adopted his nephew. "This is just speculation and therefore what can one say? This buzz had become strong just before Vijay Bahuguna was asked to resign as the Uttarakhand Chief Minister," a Congress functionary stated. The word on the street at the time was that one of the reasons why Bahuguna had to quit was because he had come to know about this development.

Though Rahul is calling the shots in the Congress despite the Lok Sabha drubbing where his party colleagues in private blamed his leadership for the debacle, he does not seem interested in politics. A former Chief Minister, now Governor, apparently told a close friend that during a luncheon meeting Rahul had with a former Union minister at a five star hotel last week, he had spoken about his lack of interest in politics. He seemed to be of the view that his sister should start playing a more prominent role. The only thing which interested him were visits to Amethi, since that reminded him of his father, Rajiv Gandhi who represented the constituency.

There have been voices in the party who want sister Priyanka to take control so that the party can be energised. On her part, Priyanka has been showing interest in politics and had told some Congress leaders that Rahul may forgive them for what they have been doing, but she will certainly never pardon their actions of criticising her family and her brother in particular.

Most Congressmen expect that sooner than soon Priyanka will have to come and take control of things as both Sonia and Rahul seem to have run out of steam. Senior Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi had a couple of months ago made the demand for a more defined role for Priyanka in party affairs as even Rajiv Gandhi was of the view that his daughter had a very strong political aptitude. Indira Gandhi had ten days before her death told her political adviser Makhan Lal Fotedar that her grand-daughter would one day lead both the party and country and people would support her since she would remind them of her grandmother. After she would come to power, people would forget her (Indira Gandhi), she said.

In the light of the cadre and some seniors making a strong pitch for Priyanka to take a prominent role, the Gandhis may have worked out a succession plan of enabling Rahul to "adopt" Rehan, who along with sister Miraya has often accompanied their mother during election campaigns in Rae Bareli and Amethi. The adoption, if carried out, would simply give Rehan a powerful surname, though everything else in the schoolboy's life would continue as it is.