“The Gandhis have typically married down: Feroze was a no-name backbencher, Maneka a beauty pageant type, and Sonia will perennially remain “that Italian waitress” to her detractors. So a petty trader from Moradabad isn’t exactly unprecedented. What makes Robert exceptional is that he is astoundingly, indisputably dumb. While neither the Gandhis nor their spouses have been towering intellectuals, none of them have come remotely close to matching Vadra’s lack of intelligence.” – Lakshmi Chaudhry
Each time Robert Vadra steps into the spotlight, the average mango folks can’t help but wonder, “Really? She married him?” Of all the men at all the Delhi A-list parties, Priyanka Gandhi picked this guy?
“Vadra’s sweet-heart deal with DLF raises many questions but what makes no sense whatsoever is how a petty brass trader from Moradabad, who looks more like Priyanka’s chauffer than her significant other, could patao a Nehru-Gandhi scion and marry into India’s most powerful political family. We demand that Vadra come clean on this,” thunders a fake Arvind Kejriwal in an Unreal Times spoof of the unfolding drama.
The bigger mystery, as the humour mag cheekily points out, is not how Vadra got rich, but how he got hitched. As a friend wryly observes, “It’s like she married Ajay Devgn.” And that’s a bit unfair to Devgn.
“Businessman Robert Vadera is unlikely to figure anywhere among the country’s 1,000 most eligible bachelors. Priyanka Gandhi‘s 28-year-old beau is short, fair, rather stocky and only moderately well-to-do,” begins a 1997 Outlook profile of Vadra the fiancé. The article went on to damn him with faint praise, describing him variously as “unremarkable man”; “an average student and not an outstanding sportsman”; and, most amusingly, as “a bit of a Puppy,” and not of the canine kind. According to Outlook, Robert’s own friends in Moradabad were in shock: “We haven’t stopped wondering what Priyanka could possibly see in the boy. There is nothing exceptional about him or the family.” Ouch!
We will never solve the mystery behind the miracle that is Robert Vadra. But his saving virtue for the Gandhi family is clear: He makes his brother-in-law look like Albert Einstein. Reuters
In other words, he was all crass, no class, and unlike his predecessors, not even easy on the eye.
Now, the Gandhis have typically married down: Feroze was a no-name backbencher, Maneka a beauty pageant type, and Sonia will perennially remain “that Italian waitress” to her detractors. So a petty trader from Moradabad isn’t exactly unprecedented. What makes Robert exceptional is that he is astoundingly, indisputably dumb. While neither the Gandhis nor their spouses have been towering intellectuals, none of them have come remotely close to matching Vadra’s lack of intelligence.
The now infamous Facebook update — “Mango people in banana republic” — was not just crassly elitist but just plain stupid. It requires the complete absence of common sense. The presence of even one gray cell may have given our Robert some pause. Just maybe I shouldn’t sneer at ordinary people in the midst of an unfolding corruption scandal targeting my disproportionate wealth. Just maybe it spells political suicide for my illustrious in-laws. Just maybe the media is tracking my Facebook account since my last update made headline news.
Damaadji entertained no such eminently sensible doubts, not even when deleting his FB account in a huff: “Obviously, it seems I have people on my Facebook account who do not have a sense of humour. Everything I write becomes news and further debates on television?? I have decided to delete my account.”
Obviously, Robert isn’t very good at comprehending the obvious.
“Nothing I say is premeditated,” said Robert in a TOI interview earlier this year, or — as it turns out — remotely intelligent. Tooting his own horn, he declared, “I am very determined, be it business or my fitness. I’ve lost 20 kg in five years. And in this much time, if I’d wanted to, I could have become a big celebrity. It’s been a fight to stay normal.”
“I gave up my life for Priyanka, fighting every day to not be a celebrity,” he insists again toward the end of the interview — just in case we don’t quite grasp the full measure of his sacrifice. Poor Robert, condemned to fight a lifelong battle against fame, valiantly staving off even the slightest hint of imminent success for the sake of his wife.
A battle he has clearly lost. Despite his best efforts to remain an unknown loser, his many ventures have been vastly and inexplicably profitable. Crores of rupees have wilfully slithered onto their balance sheets and into his pockets without a single sound business reason. As Mint editor R Sukumar notes:
To call the story of the growth of Vadra’s business empire… rags to riches would be stretching things a bit simply because there were no rags at its beginning. If anything, The Hindu’s description makes the business model of Vadra’s companies sound like a perpetual motion machine, with assets swelling despite no increase in business activity.
Then again, Robert’s ability to acquire precious commodities has always relied on the miraculous, as Unreal Times points out: “Certainly, Vadra’s acquisition of Priyanka was disproportionate to all his known sources of talent and Vadra needs to give a full account of his courtship to the public.”
We will never solve the mystery behind the miracle that is Robert Vadra. But his saving virtue for the Gandhi family is clear: He makes his brother-in-law look like Albert Einstein. – FirstPost, 9 October 2012
See also
- The danger that is Robert Vadra – John MacLithon
- Robert Vadra: No security checks please – HK & JP
- Robert Vadra: Proxy Tycoon? (with videos) – Sandhya Jain
- Are we seeing the Congress Party end-game? – Madhav Nalapat
Filed under: india | Tagged: arvind kejriwal, banana republic, corruption, culture, DLF group, economics, INC, india, indian national congress, indian politics, lifestyle, mango people, media, nehru-gandhi clan, nehru-gandhi family, newspaper, political corruption, politics, psychological warfare, robert vadra, scams, society, tv, UPA-2 |
BHARATA BHARATI 
IS please reflect on this. Your expertise is sought in this.
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/10/20/270–Russia-orthodox-church-seeks-land-in-Delhi-.html
The Russian Orthodox Church in India traces its links to the ancient church of St Thomas in South India.
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http://amreekandesi.com/2012/10/07/open-letter-to-shri-robert-vadra/
The above one is from here.
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Open Letter to Shri Robert Vadra
October 7, 2012
By amreekandesi
Dear Shri Robert Vadra ji,
I know you’re in the news for corruption and tax evasion charges, but don’t let that bog you down. You are bigger than that, and we are with you. And of course, there’s the union cabinet to take care of that. Salman hai na? [I am guessing that in the inner party circles, he goes as son-in-law minister. Hee hee.]
But on a serious note, you are such an inspiration, man.
You know how everybody has their life-changing moments? Buddha had it below than Banyan tree. Newton had it when that apple fell on his head. Poonam Pandey when she realized her best talent was taking her clothes off. Similarly, mine was when i saw a sign at the airport listing out the most important people in India, the ones exempted from getting their balls cupped by CISF officers.
President. Prime Minister. Cabinet Ministers. Chief Justice. Shri Robert Vadra.
Man, this must be an order of magnitude bigger than getting AIR 1 in IITJEE, 100 percentile in CAT and topping the civil services exam. In the same year. Mumma must be so proud.
Dude, you’re such a rockstar. And i felt important when Continental airlines sent me a one-time pass to the premium lounge. What a loser.
But i guess you were destined for greatness. Your mom was of Scottish origin, and dad an Indian. Always the mark of a great man to marry a foreigner, and i guess it also fit into the whole Gandhi family theme. But clearly, if there’s one thing you did well, it was getting married to Priyanka ji. Very nice lady she is, tall, charismatic, short hair and all that.
While most Indian men dream of marrying a woman who can get them a crore in dowry, you went long. And how. Good job there.
Don’t get me wrong, i am not like those stupid BJP walas, ranting against you. I truly adore you man. Your journey is going to inspire men and women for many centuries.
I mean, you got the airport frisking exemption even before the chiefs of our defense services. That is so FREAKING AWESOME.
Of course, you are not all about being the first-son-in-law of the country. There’s more to you. Like spending time in the gym to give a complex to Salman and Hrithik. You’re forty and have a six pack of abs. I am 32 and my lungs turn into the Agni missile if i dare run a kilometer. You already have a mustache. I say you should shoot for the lead role in Dabangg 2.
Oh, and i love your 1800cc motorcycle. Even my car doesn’t have that many CCs. But then, the national jamai has to live in style, so it is cool. Kitna deti hai, btw?
There’s so much to you. I think you are doing a great job of removing gender stereotypes that crappy shows like Balika Vadhu are creating. There the bahus spend their time cooking, looking good and taking care of the family name. Here, you are making sure you look good, while taking care of the family name. This is just so sweet. I would do chubby cheeks to you, if i could.
Along the way, you’ve also built yourself a business empire. Stakes in hotels, apartments all over the place, everything totaling hundreds of crores. Excellent example for unmarried budding entrepreneurs. Just one suggestion – you should consider putting up those apartments for rent. Some supplemental income never hurts.
Awesome, man. Awesome. Very impressive.
Achha, one last thing. I hear you got a 10,000 square feet apartment in Gurgaon for 89 lakh. Boss, this is god-level bargaining skills. How did you manage? When i tried, they wouldn’t sell me an apartment a tenth of that size for that much. Can you please help getting that discount? Perhaps if we find ten other people, DLF might even give us a group discount and make it even cheaper.
Chalo boss, that’s it for now. Take care, keep rocking, and don’t worry about Kejriwal, the BJP, or Indian people. We forgot about Bofors, we’ve forgotten CWG, we’ve forgotten 2G, we’ll forget Coal G, we’ll forget JIJA JI as well.
Disclaimer: Dear Kapil Sibal ji, i just mean this in good humor. If you are considering putting me in jail for this silly satirical post, please note that Suresh Raina’s nephew wrote it.]
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Lol!
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Thank you! It is really very funny!
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http://shovonc.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/warren-buffet-hires-sonia-gandhis-son-in-law/
WARREN BUFFET HIRES SONIA GANDHI’S SON-IN-LAW
In news that has relieved lovers of money everywhere, legendary investment guru Warren Buffet has announced that the search for his successor is finally over. New Delhi-based entrepreneur Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Indian Supremo Sonia Gandhi, will soon be taking over as head of Berkshire Hathaway.
“Despite an extremely rigorous gym schedule, this extraordinary young man has become a billionaire in just four years,” said the Sage of Omaha. “Not only did he convince real estate giant DLF to give him an entire suburb of Delhi at throwaway prices, he also got them to lend him the money, interest free. My sources inform me that he is also acquiring two or three other Indian states, but he’s too modest to talk about these things.”
Members of Sonia Gandhi’s domestic staff have welcomed the move.
“I kiss his boots on a regular basis,” said Law Minister Salman Khurshid, “It’s amazing how smooth he keeps the leather.”
“He’s extremely dynamic,” said baggage-handler Manish Tewari. “When I carry his bags at the airport, I can barely keep up. And it’s not just because he doesn’t have to go through security.”
DLF has rubbished allegations of corruption, and maintains that all dealings have been completely transparent.
“We did everything very openly,” said a spokesperson for DLF. “There is no question of favouritism. We are committed to providing the same benefits to anyone who marries Priyanka Gandhi.”
Others have also earmarked Vadra for international glory.
“Let me just get through this election,” said US President Barack Obama. “If I win, I’m going to use this man’s help to revive the US economy.”
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I dont believe Vadra wrote, “Mango people in banana republic”. It was the family copywriter. The same chap perhaps who wrote the gamechanger stuff for the Parliament act!
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