No strangers to controversy, Shehzad and Tehseen Poonawalla might be more trouble for Congress than they bargained for.
Mumbai: One brother says he is a well wisher of the Congress and not a party worker. But, he makes frequent appearances on television news debates speaking for the Congress and party president Rahul Gandhi.
The other brother says he is a Congress member and takes affront when party spokespersons disassociate with him, flashing one document after another to prove otherwise. He, however, routinely questions the party and criticises Gandhi’s actions and comments.
Both have cut ties over their political differences. This is the curious case of the Poonawalla brothers — Tehseen and Shehzaad — both Twitter personalities who local Congress leaders in Maharashtra often describe as “self-styled Congressmen”.
Political divergence
No strangers to controversy, the Poonawalla brothers have especially been in the news over the past six months after Shehzad Poonawalla called the Congress presidential election rigged, calling out the dynasty politics within the party. He also said Congress leaders treated him very shabbily despite his repeated attempts to get in touch with Gandhi’s office before his public outburst.
While he received a pat on the back from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his statement, which Shehzad graciously accepted by thanking the prime minister, his brother Tehseen immediately distanced himself and his wife from it, publicly disowning his brother.
The Poonawallas, as their names suggest, belong to Pune and are from a well-off Aga Khani Muslim family. The brothers started working for the Congress in 2008 and came a long way in a short while. Several Congress leaders envy their access to the party high command.
Tehseen Poonawalla, who describes himself as a political trends watcher, a life coach, an entrepreneur and a columnist, is married into the politically influential Vadra family, with his wife Monicka Vadera being Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s cousin. The Gandhi family even attended the Poonawalla-Vadera wedding in 2016.
The younger Shehzad, who describes himself as a civil rights activist, was most recently a secretary in the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee until leaders cast him aside, saying he was never a part of the organisation, after he questioned Gandhi’s election.
Rising up the ladder
Shehzad Poonawalla took a relatively unexplored route to enter politics by signing up for an academic course at the MIT School of Government, Pune, to arm himself with a degree for a career in politics and government. He also studied law and interned with Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi before joining the All India Congress Committee (AICC) as a volunteer. He has been the vice president of the Pune wing of the National Students Union of India and also worked in the AICC’s media cell.
After completing his course in 2008, Shehzad interned with the Congress’ media research team in Delhi, while Tehseen accompanied him to pursue business interests. In a short span, Shehzad forged networks with senior Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh, Rajeev Shukla and Manish Tewari, working in their offices.
Singh, then in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, even handpicked the Poonawalla brothers to run the party’s war room in Lucknow in preparation for the 2012 assembly polls in the state.
In July last year, the Poonawalla brothers also helped Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi, running a social media campaign for him, after Nitish Kumar resigned and moved away from Bihar’s grand alliance.
“I support a very liberal, secular ideology. Hence I am comfortable with anyone on the same wavelength,” Tehseen told ThePrint. “I am not a member of any political party, but I do create youth volunteer initiatives on my own for liberal secular individuals and also parties like Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal…I am with anyone who is politically opposed to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.”
Maharashtra Congress leaders say both brothers were close to the Kalmadi family and thus, well-networked in the Delhi political circles. Tehseen Poonawalla even worked as a consultant to the organising committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in India. Kalmadi later battled corruption charges related to the hosting of the games.
Political activism
Tehseen, like Shehzad, takes up social and socio-political issues, making statements and filing Right to Information (RTI) requests. In one such RTI request in 2015, he asked whether the railways had any official record or registration number issued to Modi allowing him to sell tea on trains and at stations, and used it to show how there was absolutely no record to support the prime minister’s claim of being a ‘chai wallah’.
The brothers have also been at the forefront of a demand for an anti-lynching bill, ‘Manav Suraksha Kanoon’, vociferously speaking against cow vigilantism.
Recently, Tehseen was also one of the petitioners seeking an independent probe into the death of CBI special court judge B.H. Loya who was hearing the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in which Amit Shah, now the BJP national president, was one of the accused. The Supreme Court rejected the demand.
Following Shehzad’s verbal attack on Rahul Gandhi, Congress leaders have disassociated with him saying he was never a primary member of the party. Meanwhile, Shehzad has been running a campaign to drum up support for dynasty-free politics based purely on merit. While he identifies himself as from the Congress in his Twitter bio, it is followed by ‘Dynasty Mukt Congress Abhiyaan’ in parenthesis.
Strained relationship
Tehseen barely speaks to his brother now except on television where the two brothers are often pitted against each other, he said.
“It is tragic this question is never posed to Yashwant Sinha ji and his son Jayant, or Mukesh and Anil (Ambani), but I do understand, in that sense, I am a soft target,” Tehseen said, adding his relationship with his brother is a very painful issue because he practically raised Shehzad as his child as their father, Sarfaraz Poonawalla, passed away when Shehzad was just five.
“Politics has now queered our relation, but I try to be mature about it. Given my wife’s discomfort over his attack on my personal disappointment, we decided as a family that Shehzad would not come to Pune to our family home and I have reduced my frequency of visits to Delhi because unfortunately we shared one house in Delhi,” Tehseen said.
Congress leaders say the two brothers were hardly seen in city or state Congress functions and their clout in the party spiralled mainly after the Poonawalla-Vadera marriage. A senior Congress legislator in Maharashtra said, “Over the last one year, Tehseen has called me a couple of times asking me for some information related to the party or issues saying ‘boss’ wants it.”
The fact that the brothers are articulate ensured that they kept making appearances on television news channels to present the Congress’ point of view. This riled up quite a few Congress leaders to such an extent that post the 2014 defeat, the party’s media department formally lodged protests with some TV channels for inviting the Poonawalla brothers.
Twitter personalities
With nearly 2 lakh Twitter followers, Shehzad widely uses the social media platform to voice his political criticism — choosing the politest of words — and is often hailed by his fans as being a dynamic young leader, a mature one and an asset to any political party.
He also uses the platform to combat Congress leaders who publicly alienate him from the party, sharing all documents in public domain and previous public comments of the same leaders decisively talking about him as a Congress functionary.
He also scathingly attacks the party on Twitter. For instance, on Rahul Gandhi’s recent barbs at BJP leaders for not visiting an ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the hospital and emphasising on how he visited the former prime minister though they were political rivals, Poonawalla accused Gandhi of using the situation to gain political mileage.
He tweeted, “I am saddened to tell u this. AIIMS told Rahul Gandhi not to visit Atal Bihari Vajpayee due to health concerns. He ignored their pleas & still went only for politics. Sad truth! Today after Rahul claimed credit over this I was forced to disclose this. #ShamefulPolitics (sic)”
The rebel Congress leader also caused a stir when he released documents detailing an alleged pitch made by controversial data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to the Congress. While several have raised questions on whether Shehzad intends to join the BJP, the young leader has not explicitly said anything to that effect yet.
Tehseen too has a large Twitter following of more than 2.1 lakh and has an aura of a stylish, flamboyant, fit and socially-aware socialite who has previously dabbled in the restaurant business. He now takes up social media consultancy projects, is involved with a start-up venture, works with his wife on a jewellery business they started six months ago, and is spending a considerable part of his time currently writing a book.
Unlike his brother, he bats for the Congress, often with a cheeky sense of humour on social media. He recently shielded Rahul Gandhi on Twitter from flak over his “a shikanjiwala started Coca Cola” remark, by stating that the Coca Cola syrup was sold by Asa Candler as a patent medicine, and those running down Gandhi have no idea of how the brand grew.
When Delhi-based BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga suggested that by Gandhi’s logic Tehseen should be the owner of Pune, Tehseen Poonawalla sassily responded, “But, this is true bhai!”