| Varun Gandhi | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 16 May 2009 |
|
| Preceded by | Maneka Gandhi |
| Constituency | Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Feroze Varun Gandhi 13 March 1980 New Delhi, Delhi |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse(s) | Yamini Roy Chowdhury |
| Relations | Sanjay Gandhi (father) Maneka Gandhi (mother) |
| Residence | New Delhi |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Website | Varun Gandhi |
| As of 16 May, 2009 Source: [1] |
|
Feroze Varun Gandhi (born 13 March 1980, Delhi, India) is an Indian politician, he is a member of Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India, representing the Pilibhit constituency. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party National Executive and the youngest National Secretary in the history of the party.[1][2]
Contents |
Varun Gandhi was born in Delhi on 13 March 1980 to Sanjay Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi, he is the grandson of the former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi and the great-grandson of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. His father died in a plane crash when he was three months old. His grandmother was assassinated when Varun was four-years-old. Indira Gandhi is said to have been very fond of Varun and was greatly distressed when his mother left the household.[3]
He attended Rishi Valley School and completed his A levels from the British School, New Delhi, where he was elected secretary of the student council. According to a press statement released by Sumantra Bose, Professor of International and Comparative Politics at London School of Economics, Varun completed his Bachelor of Science in Economics from the London School of Economics via the University of London External System in the year 2002.[4] He also completed his Master of Science in Public Policy from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 2004 also through correspondence.
Varun is married to Yamini Roy, daughter of late diplomat Sunil Roy Chowdhury and film enthusiast Dr. Aruna Vasudev.[5][6]
The nature of his profession and ideological affiliations, coupled with the inexperience of his age, have invited criticisms about him and his ways.[7] In an interview to Stephen Sackur in BBC's HARDtalk in October 2005, Gandhi answered questions about the reasons behind his political affiliation and defended his father as someone who had helped revive the industrialisation of India by starting Maruti Udyog and whose strategy helped the Congress party's comeback after the first ever non-Congress Janata Dal government following an electoral routing for the Indira Gandhi-government after Emergency, among many other things.[8]
In the 2009 general election, the BJP decided to field Varun Gandhi as its candidate from the Pilibhit constituency instead of his mother Menaka Gandhi.[9] He won the seat by receiving 419,539 votes and defeated his nearest contending candidate, V.M. Singh, by a margin of 281,501 votes.[10][11][12][13][14] The victory was the strongest of any of the four Gandhi family candidates in the election: his mother Maneka Gandhi, aunt Sonia Gandhi and first cousin Rahul Gandhi. The security deposits of all other candidates, including those of V.M. Singh of the Indian National Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Ganga Charan Rajput were forfeited.[15] During election campaign, a controversial speech by him resulted in his judicial custody prior to the election.[16] On 6 March 2011 he got married to Yamini Rai Choudhuri at Varanaasi.
In August 2011, Varun Gandhi strongly pitched for the Jan Lokpal Bill. Gandhi offered his official residence to Hazare to hold his fast, after Hazare was denied permission by the government.[17] When Hazare was jailed, Gandhi offered to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament.[18] On August 24, he went to Ramlila Maidan as a common man to support the cause of Anna Hazare, becoming the first politician to openly support the anti-corruption cause.[19]
Mr Gandhi, the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, has repudiated the movement which gave his dynasty its place in India's halls of power. Instead he has found notoriety as a rabble-rousing politician pandering to mob instincts. During one campaign rally, he taunted Muslims over their tradition of circumcision, called a Muslim rival "Osama bin Laden" and swore that he would "cut off the hand" of any follower of Islam who dared to threaten a Hindu.."[20]
The Election Commission of India directed the Chief Electoral Officer, Uttar Pradesh to file a case under Indian Penal Code and Representation of the People Act against Varun Gandhi and issued a notice to him for violation of Model Code of Conduct.[21] The Election Commission had served Varun Gandhi a Show Cause notice asking him to reply by 11 am on 20 March 2009.
Replying to the controversy and charges against him Gandhi, a descendant of the former prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, denied making the comments, saying the video had been tampered with. "I am innocent. I have been falsely implicated in a conspiracy," he told reporters today. However the commission investigating the controversy said it was "fully convinced and satisfied" that the video "has not been tampered with, doctored or morphed".[22]
On 22 March 2009, the Election Commission of India asked the BJP not to nominate Varun as a candidate for the 2009 General Elections. The Election Commission informed the BJP, since the party disowned the comments made, if party nominated him as a candidate then whatever he mentioned in the 'Hate Speech' would be treated as the party's policies.[23] However, the BJP said that it was not in the domain of the Election Commission to dictate to political parties which candidates to field and which not to. The BJP also raised questions on the non-partiality of the controversial Election Commissioner Navin Chawla and his alleged proximity to the Congress party.
BJP president Rajnath Singh said that the recording had been doctored and that the BJP will not accept the commission's advice.[24]
On 29 March, Varun Gandhi surrendered before a local court in Pilibhit after his anticipatory bail expired and he was subsequently sent to judicial custody[25] by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's government. He was granted a two week parole on 16 April[26] and filed his nomination as a candidate in Pilibhit on 22 April.[27]
On 8 May, the State Advisory Board of the Allahabad High Court recommended the revocation of the National Security Act (NSA) slapped on Varun Gandhi. It cited lack of sufficient grounds to press forward the case under the law against him. However, the state government of Uttar Pradesh refused to budge and appealed the Supreme Court's decision.
On 14 May 2009, the Supreme Court of India was not satisfied by the UP government's request for the continuation of the NSA charge against Varun Gandhi and asked the state government to rescind the NSA charge; to which the state government then complied. The Supreme Court revoked the restrictions imposed by the Uttar Pradesh state government surrounding his arrest and parole.[28]
| Lok Sabha | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Maneka Gandhi |
Member for Pilibhit 2009 – present |
Incumbent |