In February 2015, amid a growing clamour for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s entry into active politics, the younger of Rajiv Gandhi’s two children was busy showcasing the other legacy she had inherited from her father—a love for photography.
Through an exhibition of her photos in Delhi, themed ‘Light and Shadow’, she presented her perspective on the ordinary life of Indians—from capturing the shadow of a moving bicycle to a young man gazing into the yellow light of a bulb.
Priyanka apparently took to photography when she was 12, inspired by her father’s keen interest in it. In 2011, she co-authored, along with painter Anjali Singh and hotelier Jaisal Singh, a book called Ranthambore: The Tiger’s Realm, which included photographs she took at the tiger reserve. “I love the jungle, I always have,” she wrote in the book. “There is an unpredictability about it that is just beautiful. You never know where and when you will encounter the life you ought to live—untamed and feral. Everything is defined only by its own existence. Animals are what they are—unabashedly themselves.”
It is only on such occasions that the Gandhis, fiercely protective of their privacy, choose to present a facet of their life to the world. The rest trickles out as information from family confidants, in moments where they do not exercise caution, and it soon becomes a part of the family lore.
Priyanka has rarely spoken about her personal life. But she has always been in the public eye and, hence, has faced scrutiny of her personal life, be it for her sartorial sense or her marriage to Robert Vadra.
Priyanka met Robert when she was 13; his sister Michelle was her schoolmate. The friendship turned into romance and they got married when Priyanka was 26. Robert, who comes from a family of brassware exporters in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, has made news as much for his flashy lifestyle as for allegations of corruption in land deals. Priyanka, however, has stood by him, and has described him as one of the “cleanest” people that she has ever met.
As she said in an interview a few years ago, Priyanka just wants to build a normal life for herself. However, the days of grocery shopping in Delhi’s posh Khan Market or cooking for the kids’ parties are well in the past now; she packed off her children to boarding schools in Uttarakhand a few years ago, after becoming more actively involved in managing political affairs for her brother, Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Self-confessedly short-tempered, Priyanka turned to Buddhism to find calm and a release from the trauma of the tragedies that have befallen her family. She has been practising vipassana for more than 11 years, and completed her MA in Buddhist Studies in 2010.
A key highlight of her public persona is her dressing style. Be it the handloom saris she has worn during visits to family pocket boroughs Amethi and Rae Bareli, or the chic western wear she has chosen for her evening outings in Lutyens’ Delhi. She has inherited her grandmother Indira Gandhi’s saris, among them a lush purple embroidered number she wore to the wedding reception of actor Amitabh Bachchan’s niece a few years ago. Indira had worn it on her visit to the US in 1966.
Priyanka also keeps adding to her sari collection, relying on the recommendations of textile conservationists and choosing from the collections of designer Neeru Kumar and Sanjay Garg’s Raw Mango collection. Apart from the saris, she has often worn her grandmother’s watch, which originally belonged to Jawaharlal Nehru.
Priyanka pulls off western wear just as easily. In July 2008, she had wowed fashion watchers when she turned up in Parliament to hear her brother speak. She wore a fitted white blouse paired with smart black trousers, ably accessorised with a broad black belt and simple pearl-drop earrings.
Priyanka loves to take off on vacations with her children, especially to wildlife sanctuaries such as Ranthambore or Corbett, or to foreign locations like Singapore, where they can move around with minimum security. She has also accompanied her mother Sonia Gandhi on holidays to Goa and Shimla. In fact, the visits to Shimla also offer the opportunity to check on the progress of her dream house, being built near the state capital. The design of the house, which is said to be almost ready, is an mix of Himachali and colonial architecture. However, the house attracted controversy because of its proximity to the presidential retreat, and there have been RTI queries about how permission was granted for its construction.
And now that she has taken the political plunge, many other queries will follow.