Priyanka Vadra has every right to yearn that her brother be Prime Minister of India, but that he is of prime ministerial material - has all the qualifications to be so - is an extension of her warped mindset.

She and the family have been living off taxpayer money and would naturally like to continue fleecing the people of India. Her mother has no house in India, but lives at No. 10 Janpath, which is estimated at Rs. 300 crores! To whom does this belong? Her mother has no car, but bullet-proof cars are available at her service.

Priyanka wants us to believe that her love for the country is so great that she deserves a government house and security for which the taxpayer must pay, while the poor for whom she promises her brother will work all his life have no security. Can any other citizen have this kind of luxury and empress-like treatment at the cost of the toiling masses of India?

Priyanka Vadra, Rahul, and Sonia Gandhi are accustomed to reap harvests without sowing and ploughing, without getting down in the slush and dirtying their hands, without shedding a drop of sweat. They have not sweated for this country, but have sat in the luxury of air conditioners, stepping out only occasionally to ensure that this luxurious lifestyle continuous.

Hence Priyanka turns people’s attention to external inanities, ‘Look at me, am I old, is my brother old, is my mother old?’ This is the level of her reaction to Mr. Narendra Modi calling the Congress Party an ‘old woman’ (a linguistic necessity occasioned by the fact that the Hindi language gives a gender to even inanimate objects!).

India is Indira was once a slogan, now Priyanka, raised in the same familial egoistic sycophantic environment, thinks the Congress Party is she, her brother, and her mother! What a pigmy perception! She does not realize that before her mother was born, the Congress Party was alive. Her mother has nothing to do with that Congress Party - neither can the present day Congress claim to be an inheritor of that Congress Party.

But to draw attention to her youthfulness is superficial and reveals hollowness. It has no intrinsic value. It was again Priyanka who during the last elections retorted, ‘Show me others who have made sacrifices for the country like my family has.’ The media goes gaga with her sound-bytes which need to be blacked out. Does she know what sacrifices are? Does she realize that those who make sacrifices do not boast, do not barter for power, are no burden to the taxpayer and are hardworking, with callous hands and feet, trek miles for drinking water, wait for the rain gods to parch their dry lands, dig the earth, cut stones, all for a wage which gives them their daily rotis.

This puts India on the move and the ilk of Priyanka step out and say look at me! We have see what work her mother and brother have achieved - more poverty, more indebtedness for the rural people, and utter disdain for their hard work.

Priyanka Vadra must first put in some hard work and have more understanding to qualify for canvassing for her brother and projecting him as future PM. Can she honesty tell us what her brother’s qualifications are? Rahul’s only qualification is his being born in the Gandhi family. Priyanka’s only qualification to project him as future PM is that she is his sister! Rahul as Prime Minister of India is the biggest insult the family can inflict on India. His utter ignorance of India, his inability to distinguish even the subjects in which he read, his disinclination to hard work and his inexperience are great liabilities. He has climbed the political ladder not with hard work, but with a family name and a party of sycophants. He has not even the minimum political education. And Priyanka says he is made of Prime Ministerial stuff! That reveals Priyanka’s own bankruptcy.

Why are the Gandhis so determined to undermine India and Indians? First of all Sonia, the Italian, must remember that no matter what she does, she can never understand India and cannot be an Indian, but can only hold on to a certified Indian nationality. What has emboldened Sonia to aspire for prime Ministership for her son Rahul is the fact that she was able to hold on to power, and though she hardly uttered a word in Parliament, she was able to manipulate the Prime Minister and Government decisions.

She is good at behind-the-scene manipulations. If one cannot work, one can make others work for you; if one cannot speak, one can read what others write down for one; if one cannot make on-the-spot decisions, least of all analyze problems, one can buy time and make others do the task and put it across as one’s own. With hardly any formal education and understanding of India, Sonia Gandhi held the reins of power. So Priyanka has been emboldened to project her brother as Prime Minister.

For the family has realized that the Prime Minister of India needs no qualifications and no expertise. The post needs a specialized kind of manipulative skill. If her mother could succeed as a puppeteer, why not Rahul become the puppet? Puppet and puppeteer within a family makes it easier. Are the Gandhis playing the game of musical chairs to grab the Prime Minister’s chair?

Now let’s heed Priyanka’s call and look at her and answer the formidable question she poses - am I old? Priyanka needs to understand language and what words communicate, not fall back on banalities. It will not stand for long - not in this unconquerable India and people who can look beyond what is visible. Time will prove that to the Gandhis.

The author is a retired Professor from Stella Maris College, Chennai, and lives in Vadodara