Wanted: A House

WHO says househunting is any easier for celebrity couples? Ask Priyanka Gandhi and Robert Vadhera. Sonia Gandhi has ruled out the possibility of Priyanka living in 10, Janpath after she marries Robert this month. The couple’s choice of a two-bedroom house has been vetoed by the SPG. And a bitter controversy that could embarrass the Gandhi family has erupted on whether government accommodation should be provided to a family that seemingly has it all. And more.

" Would you like to live with your mother-in-law?" asks a source close to the family in response to a query on what Sonia feels about the idea of the couple staying on in the Gandhi household and sharing security. " It’s against our traditions. A young couple should be entitled to their own privacy. For that, they’re willing to pay market rates. They don’t want to wangle a freebie."

The couple’s choice of a two-bedroom house in Delhi’s posh Sainik Farms after addresses in equally sought-after localities such as Nizamuddin, Defence Colony and New Friends Colony had been shot down by the SPG, was rejected after the latter found the house didn’t have a back door. "It was a cul-de-sac," says an SPG officer.

With a few days left for the marriage, the S P G has sent a request to the Ministry of Urban Affairs for suitable accommodation. But newsreports and editorials that the ministry might provide the couple a Type-6 category bungalow, generally allotted to senior bureaucrats, invited a lot of comment. 

"Why doesn’t the government mark off a part of Lutyens’ Delhi as Gandhi Enclave— after all, in time, Rahul Gandhi, too, will get married," asks a diarist in The Times of India . "In crises of national importance such as 200 Indians drowning in the Ionian Sea, Delhi has been troubled over the problem of finding new lodging for Priyanka Gandhi," wrote a columnist in the daily.

The family, however, says its hands are tied by the S P G. "Why’s everybody assuming the Gandhis are doing this deliberately? Their lives are controlled by the S P G, they can’t do a thing without its approbation. They’re willing to pay the going price for whatever the government gives them. They don’t want anything for free," says the source .

The family is further perturbed by hints that giving the couple government accommodation might set a bad precedent. Sons and daughters of other former prime ministers might demand the same. But, says the source , it’s not the Gandhis’ fault that they need Z-plus category security: "How many people are in the Z-plus category? Sonia, Rahul, Priyanka, and a few more ? "

The S P G and the Intelligence Bureau reportedly  want a bungalow that stands out, so that they can monitor the movement of people into and out of the house. That rules out flats. Vadhera , who hails from Moradabad, himself doesn’t own property here .

"Robert is not some fat cat who can shell out millions for a fancy address in Delhi. Priyanka is different. If she was looking for such things, this relationship wouldn’t have come about; we wouldn’t have had this situation," adds the source.

Having grown up amidst  airtight security— the children were tutored at home in the final years of their schooling— Priyanka was looking forward to a normal life. But the row over renting a house, together with the court case over an Andhra Pradesh Congress worker’s claim that he is Priyanka’s legal husband, have reportedly left Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter distraught. Doubts are also being raised about February 5 as the D - day. The venue, of course, will be 10, Janpath since it will save the bother of spreading a security umbrella in a public place. It will be a wedding according to Hindu rituals, not a church wedding, because, says a family source: "She’s a Hindu and so is he."

With the wedding a few days away and no house in sight, the couple will in all likelihood stay in 10, Janpath for some time after their honeymoon. And then, hopefully, says the source, they’ll be on their own.