Meet the new Varun Gandhi

The poster boy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Varun Gandhi, made it clear in his first public appearance in Mumbai that his communal image is a thing of the past and he is now focusing on the adage ‘actions speak louder than words.'

Poonam Mahajan and Varun Gandhi at the function.u00a0Pic/ Satyajit Desai

Gandhi, who invited the public's wrath after he made controversial remarks against Muslims during his election campaign at Pilibhit three years ago, made it clear that in the coming days, talent would matter more than religion or community.

Gandhi was the chief guest at the inauguration of the BJP's communication centre in Dadar on Saturday. Though in his 30-minute speech, Gandhi emphasised on the importance of the Internet, as the programme was named Social Media, Youth and BJP, he also spoke about communal harmony. Citing activist Anna Hazare's example, he said, "Anna called upon people to fight against corruption and everyone joined him because he was talking about an issue that concerned the people. Everybody joined him irrespective of their faith or community."

Poonam Mahajan, who was the other speaker at the function, emphasised the importance of the Internet too. u00a0

'I'm just a call away'
Gandhi let out a secret while addressing the function on Saturday. "During elections politicians make false promises and refer to their vote banks as family members. But only those who maintain relations with the public after the elections can truly survive in politics. I have actually saved the contact numbers of people from my constituency. Whenever they call me, I refer to them by their name. It has a huge impact. People who forget their own people have lost bitterly in elections," he said. u00a0