Why Rahul Gandhi needs to get out of Lutyens Delhi for a while

If Rahul Gandhi really wants to make the most of ‘losing’ his Lutyens Delhi perch, he should desist from settling back into another Lutyens Delhi perch—his mother’s. Instead, he should consider living like an ordinary Indian for the first time in his life, in another part of Delhi. After a similar loss his sister Priyanka Vadra had merely moved down the road to Sujan Singh Park; he should be braver. This could be his Siddhartha moment. The attraction of living with mom is manifest, especially since Sonia Gandhi has been living all by herself in the 15,181 sqm 10 Janpath compound since 2004—after RahulG was allotted a Lutyens bungalow of his own on Tughlaq Lane after becoming a member of Parliament. His sister Priyanka had already moved into yet another Lutyens bungalow in 1997 on getting married, a privilege not given to anyone else before—or since. But RahulG should resist the temptation, because thanks to circumstance (and government largesse), he has been unable to gain invaluable firsthand knowledge of deprivation, at least of the kind that common people face. Not even the chaiwala-type, much less the living-on-the-edge type. Not the type weathered by his namesake either, even though it took “a lot of money to keep Gandhiji in poverty” as revealed by Sarojini Naidu. In these days of constant social media scrutiny and irreverence, this lacuna in RahulG’s narrative has to be addressed. No matter how many padyatras he undertakes to “understand India” and how often he eats, prays and scoots after interactions with “ordinary Indians” in their humble abodes, his Lutyens Delhi life has proved to be an embarrassingly constant counter-point. His lack of the “common touch” is glaringly apparent. That is because poor RahulG has been a prisoner of his VVIP status. A miserable life of sprawling bungalows and 24/7 security, reverential government retinues and imperious sarkari cavalcades. He has been sadly deprived of personal experience of even middle-class Indian existential woes, much less the worries of those further down: of crowded lanes and water shortages, parking battles and power outages, garbage piles and traffic jams. Now he has a chance to remedy that. RahulG can rightfully slum it, in a non-Lutyens Delhi precinct—east, west, south or north, it does not really matter. Each section of the capital has rich enclaves and not-so-rich ones, and they all offer plenty of variety, from 1 BHK (probably the most suitable for a single, middle-aged man like him) to 3-5BHK, three-sides-open marble palaces with parking for several cars, plus a couple of staff quarters. The rooms in most of these places may be depressingly small compared to those in Lutyens bungalows and their low ceilings with concealed lighting may appear to be bearing down on him, but these are a small price (well, not so small going by rent amounts maybe) to pay for an immersive experience—like the Van Gogh exhibition wowing Indians in Gurugram. A stint outside Lutyens Delhi would give him invaluable experience of aam aadmi life. His sister—long touted as having more of a “common touch” and political nous than he—tried briefly to distance herself from the attractions of Lutyens Delhi once her special allotment of a Lutyens bungalow was cancelled. She moved into a super-luxury apartment complex in Gurugram (arguably that city-village’s most coveted address) but came scurrying back to her old haunt within months, albeit to a flat in a private trust’s complex. Accommodation in his sister’s new neighbourhood never comes on the open market (the enclave just happens to be near Khan Market) so her landmark shift to an apartment—and thus to non-bungalow life—in 2020 would not have provided him with any inkling of the world outside Lutyens Delhi bungalows. It is just as well, given that Sujan Singh Park has its own share of annoying legal hassles with the central government these days. The choice of a home is most often dependent on a budget—a factor RahulG has not needed to consider so far in life. But most Indians learn early on about reconciling affordability with requirements and aspirations, so RahulG may as well bone up. Forget the rents for homes of humbler proportions, how much Indians fork out for residences comparable to his houses over the last 52 years in Lutyens Delhi could certainly be an alarming revelation. He could have stayed on in the government bungalow paying “market rent”—which would still be less than the actual cost of renting a place in the “Lutyens bungalow zone”, which includes apartments in Sundar Nagar, Golf Links and Jorbagh. But that could only be a stop-gap solution and politically inconvenient. That is why a move to a middle-class locality in the Capital makes so much sense. RahulG can finally get a taste of real India. There are additional costs of moving out of the ivory tower which he would do well to experience too, for instance, a considerably higher monthly outgo on utilities as, unlike in government accommodation, electricity and water bills would be calculated at non-subsidised rates. Particularly since it is unlikely his energy and water consumption would stay below the amount needed to qualify for Delhi’s state government rebates for aam aadmis. Living close to total strangers would be a great learning curve too. Besides family, staff and security, the only neighbours Lutyens Delhi compounds offer (besides fellow VVIPs in their secluded demesnes) are peacocks—and, increasingly, bands of chattering monkeys. Moving out of Lutyens Delhi is the best way for RahulG and others of his ilk to realise that India’s population, now at 1.41 billion, has a density is 431 people per sqkm. Of course, the reaction of neighbours would depend on their places on the social ladder. Those lower down may welcome RahulG if that results in an improvement in their living conditions due to a better response from the civic agencies that handle water, electricity, gas, road repairs, street lighting, transport and parking. Prosperous Delhiwallas may not be as happy to have him next door, given his baggage—not the boria-bistar variety. Moving out of a bungalow and finding a suitable place within a month is not easy. Even the US President has time between Election Day (the first Monday in November) and Inauguration Day (20 January the following year) to vacate the White House for the successor. An outgoing British prime minister, of course, gets only a day, but then none of them in recent memory has lived in 10 Downing St as long as RahulG has at 12 Tughlaq Lane: 19 years. But now that RahulG has made the effort to pack up the contents of 19 years from that bungalow, why move back to 10 Janpath even though it has been the home of the Gandhis since 1990 when it was allotted to Rajiv Gandhi, and after his assassination, to Sonia Gandhi? He can keep his belongings stored at his mother’s place and get a middle-class pied-a-terre for the time being and lay to rest the image of being a Lutyens Delhi denizen. The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed are personal. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. 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