Just shoot

Now that he’s followed his grandfather and uncle’s footsteps into the prestigious Doon school, Priyanka Gandhi’s son Raihan is now gunning for glory on the shooting range, even if only to tick mark another ‘family tradition’ on his future resume. While Rajiv Gandhi possessed a gun license and practiced target shooting as a hobby, this was something Rahul Gandhi actually excelled in — his score of 271/300 had won him gold in the 1989 Delhi state championships (that’s him in the picture getting a medal from then Delhi Lt Gov Romesh Bhandari).

Though young Raihan’s “creditable”  282/400 score in the sub-junior category is not too bad, he’s managed to make his uncle — currently under fire for shooting his mouth off on national TV — look positively gifted by comparison. In fact, Rahul’s good showing had become his springboard into the prestigious St Stephen’s College though he opted out after the Opposition created a stink about the “backdoor” admission under the sports quota. We hear that current Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh’s daughter Deepti was a fellow participant at many shooting competitions with Rahul and believes he could have gone on to represent India at international competitions if he hadn’t chosen politics as a career instead.

While Rahul’s detractors say that would have been a win-win situation for both Indian shooting and the Congress, Sonia Gandhi’s biographer Rasheed Kidwai has shared that coach Rajpal Singh (former international pistol shooter who also trained Rahul) has said that Raihan is “showing the potential” to turn into a good shooter...