Businessman Robert Vadhera 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. An unremarkable young man, until he begins to speak—extremely charming, soft-spoken and poised, without the slightest hint of pretension. Mr Nice Guy in person.

He is reluctant to talk about Priyanka or, indeed, to speak at all. "I don't mean to be rude or impolite, but I'd rather you didn't mention the subject (of Priyanka). It's a private thing," he says. Coaxed into talking about himself, Robert answers questions in faintly accented but impeccable English, a legacy of several years at the capital's British School.

In his small office-cum-factory in a seedy by-lane of an urban village, he juggles incoming faxes and phone-calls with outgoing peons, the epitome of a young entrepreneur. As usual, he arrives in office at 10.30 am in his white Gypsy, with a driver at the wheel. Hefty security personnel armed with walkie-talkies hover around the...