And the technique is showing results on different fronts. A cushion of privilege supports and surrounds Rajiv Gandhi’s son, Rahul, at the Doon School. He can take a jaunt to America in the middle of term with his parents and grandmother, and there are security arrangements at school for his protection (against whom?). His sister, Priyanka, is likely to be admitted to boarding school without passing the entrance examination. His mother, an Italian till now, has seen fit to change her nationality, and now, fifteen years after her marriage, has acquired an Indian passport. Care has been taken to separate the Sanjay Gandhi paraphernalia—the Memorial Trust with its fund-raising and awards, the Maruti-Suzuki collaboration, the flowers-and-incense routine at the samadhi, the public meeting commemorating the day he died, the Points, and the frightening folklore of fantasy hero-hood being built up around his abrasive and unprincipled career, from his widow. Care has been taken, too, to discredit her via scurrilous pamphlets and her mother-in-law’s public pronouncements, accompanied by distraught weeping, Sanjay’s son, according to reports, is exceptionally bright—which may be another point of tension with Maneka, since Rajiv’s children are not—so Feroze Varun, rather than Rahul, may at some, when Maneka’s isolation is total, be taken and groomed for future heirdom.