A political hara-kiri

A political hara-kiri

The fall of the two most trusted young loyalists and close friends of Rahul Gandhi- Jyothiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot- tells a different story in Indian politics. Both of them had a meteoric rise because of their proximity to Rahul. They enjoyed very privileged positions in the Congress Party; many leaders much senior to them ,who rose from the ranks going through the rigorous grinding, were not so fortunate.

The factional politics and the leaders leaving the party,for different reasons, are not new to the party. Right from Pandit Nehru to Rahul Gandhi, the persons close to the leadership left the party.  Rajagopalachari, whom Nehru made the first Governor General of India and wanted him to be even the first President of Indian Republic (as against Rajendra Prasad) parted company with him, because he considered Nehru was too socialistic. Acharya Kripalani and Jayaprakash Narayan (who Nehru hoped would succeed him) also joined the opposition ranks. Indira Gandhi whom the Syndicate considered a ‘puppet’ to maneuver  was expelled from the Congress, and many of her close colleagues, who advised her to impose the Emergency in 1975 such as V.C.Shukla and Siddharth Shankar Roy, turned against her and deposed before the Inquisitorial Shah Commission appointed by the Janata Party  Government  of Morarji Desai.  And the most trusted powerful aides of Rajiv Gandhi -V.P.Singh and Arun Nehru - went against him to dislodge him from power.

The story of Scindia and Pilot is, however, unique. Both joined the politics, parachuted so to say, following the tragic death of their fathers in accidents.  Scindia was elected Lok Sabha MP four times on the Congress Ticket. He was a Union Minister, the Chief Whip of the Party in Lok Sabha during the first term of Narendra Modi. He was made a General Secretary In-charge of Western UP and the Chief of the Election Campaign Committee in MP during the General Elections 2019.  The differences between him and the old guards - Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath –were blown out of proportion to justify  the revolt. He ditched the party, joined hands with the BJP and toppled his own government.

Sachin Pilot’s case is still murkier. He joined the Congress when he was 23 years old, and when he was hardly 26 years (the minimum age for contesting LS election) he became Lok Sabha member; at 31 he was the youngest Minister in Manmohan Singh Cabinet; at 36 he was appointed the PCC President of Rajasthan, and at 40 he was made the Dy. Chief Minister. There is no parallel in independent India of a young man enjoying so much power and exalted positions at such an young age. And yet, it is amazing to see the ‘experts’ on Indian politics saying in TV debates that the Congress party doesn’t recognize the young talents. The fact is that more than dozen young people were the Union Ministers in 2009, which is a record.

A false misleading perception is created that the fight in the Congress is between the old guards and the young leaders. What is conveniently ignored is the fact that in 1918 the majority of elected MLAs in MP wanted Kamal Nath as the Chief Minister, and Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan. They were not imposed by the High Command. How could Scindia and Pilot expect to be the CMs when they did not have majority support of the legislators, bypassing the democratic process?  How could anyone assume that even if they were made CMs, the party would have survived rebellion from the other camps?

Both Scindia and Pilot  allowed their personal ambitions to color their sensibility and reasoning. They proved shortsighted, immature, displaying intellectually bankruptcy and poor judgment, when all that they needed was patience and foresight.  To realize personal ambition at a time when the party is down and facing the worst existential crisis, in the face of Modi-Shah juggernaut, by dislodging their own elected governments, is to betray the party that catapulted them into such enviable positions, in so short a time, which no one in other parties, even within the Congress, could ever hope to reach. Their unethical and opportunistic politics  will lead to their  downfall.  They have committed a political hara-kiri and lost everything that they had achieved in a short span of political career, losing a bright future in the process. They stand discredited. They should have known how S.M.Krishna, Tom Vadakkam and many others who left the Congress and joined the BJP are treated, facing a grim future. There is something called  political morality; however amoral  politicians may sound today.

The Congress is in a serious crisis.  It is facing a formidable challenge, with overarching authoritarian regime of Narendra Modi.  The BJP targets the Gandhis because that galvanizes its rank and file.  It is the duty of the Congress workers to rally behind the party leadership, work relentlessly to revive and strengthen it.  It is a fallacious assumption the ‘dynasty’ of Gandhis is ruining the party.  The people forget that Sonia Gandhi ,who refused to take the party leadership in 1991, was compelled to take the leadership  seven year later in 1998, when the party was facing terminal illness. The rank and file in the party knows that there is no alternative to a Gandhi to save and resurrect the party, because no other leader is acceptable across the country, being associated with factional politics of caste, community and region. Both Scindia and Pilot demonstrated that they are essentially factional leaders. And "who till the other day were being talked of as possible replacement for Rahul Gandhi have proven themselves to be clay-footed,"as Dushyant Dave, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association,says.  The BJP understands that the Gandhis are a glue that alone can hold the Congress together. And that is why the Modi Government targets  them, using every possible means,even abusing the investigating agencies like IT, ED and CBI to intimidate and unnerve them. No political family in a democracy has ever faced so much witch-hunting and  humiliation as the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Both Sonia and Rahul, and for that matter Indira and Rajiv, were reluctant politicians.  And yet it is they who rescued the party time and again from total eclipse. In 1966 Lal Bahadur Shastri wanted Indira Gandhi to join his Cabinet as External Affairs Minister, because he thought she traveled widely with Pandit Nehru and therefore better suited to the job.  She refused the offer.  It was President S Radhakrishnan who felt that a Nehru could not go unrepresented in the Government and persuaded her to join Shastri's Cabinet. And she joined his Cabinet as Minister for Information and Broadcasting. After Sanjay Gandhi's death in 1980, Sonia Gandhi threatened to leave the country with her children if Rajiv Gandhi entered politics.  Similarly, Rahul Gandhi was very reluctant to join the politics. Manmohan Singh wanted him to join his Cabinet, even offering him to choose any portfolio of his choice,which he resisted. Nothing could have stopped Rahul becoming the Prime Minister in 2009 when Manmohan Singh was having a health issue or Sonia Gandhi making him so, if she wanted.

If the Congress Party is to survive and provide a credible alternative to the present ruling dispensation,it needs workers and leaders committed to its policies and core ideology, based on Gandh-Nehru ideals of secularism,liberal democracy and inclusive India. It is the lack of this commitment to its ideology that is making the people to leave the Party, induced and lured by money and power.