'Rats Flee a Sinking Ship' is an old adage. So its not surprising to see young zealots deserting Grand Old Party (Read Congress) one by one. First, it was Madhya Pradesh young turk, Jyotiraditya Scindia biding farewell to GOP. Now, its Rajasthan charioteer, Sachin Pilot removed as state Congress chief as well from Deputy Chief Minister post after he refused to budge from his rebellion.
"Congress has no place for capability", quipped Jyotiraditya Scindia, a former Congressman on sacking of Sachin Pilot from the post of Rajasthan deputy chief minister and president of the state party unit. "This is happening in all the states," said Scindia.
And he is absolutely right. Congress has never been comfortable with mass-based leaders. The one family owned party is full of parachute and rootless leaders. Only such leaders survive in this party. Anand Sharma is the classical example. I know this man since college days. In his early student days, he was in RSS run ABVP. Later, he shifted to NSUi and never looked back. Except for one assembly elections, which he lost to BJP in Shimla (urban) in early eighties, Anand Sharma never fought any elections. In fact, he has no base anywhere in any states tough he claims Himachal as his home turf. He has flourished in Congress by sheer courting Gandhis. In nutshell, Congress has always cut to the size, the mass based leader Be it Deyraj Urs, Sharad Pawar and Rajesh Pilot.
Himachal Pradesh veteran leader and six-time Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh bears the testimony . He has always faced deep humiliation in the party and once told me, " I am treated like a peon at Congress headquarters".
Sachin has inherited two traits from his father: a burning ambition, and the spirit of rebellion against his own leader. Sachin has also leaned hard lessons from his father-in-law, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, the tall J&K leader. He is married to Sara- the daughter of Farooq Abdullah and sister of Omar Abdullah.
His father, Rajeshwar Singh Bidhuri (Original name), a former IAF pilot was inducted into the Congress by Indira Gandhi on a whim. He was known as rebel without a pause in his later years.
Look at Sachin's father rebellion spirit. As a minister in the PV Narasimha Rao government, Rajesh Pilot riled the Prime Minister with his actions. As minister for internal security, he ordered the arrest of self-styled God man Chandraswami in spite of his close ties to the Congress leadership. He roamed around the Kashmir in an open jeep. In 1997, Rajesh Pilot contested the Congress president election against Sitaram Kesari. And again, when Sonia Gandhi decided to take over the reins of the party from Kesari, Rajesh Pilot had made up his mind to challenge her to the post of president but opted out under pressure from other leaders.
What the Rajesh Pilot failed to do because he died young in a road accident, his son is all set to finish the task of launching an open rebellion against the party, and a challenge to the Gandhis. The flame of ambition and rebellion was long back lit in Sachin, probably like Mahabharata's Abhimanyu
But, Pilot's family also owes much to the Gandhis. Without Gandhis' support the Pilot family could have been hardly in politics. It was due to Indira and Sanjay Gandhi that a pilot from Uttar Pradesh was para dropped into Rajasthan’s politics in 1980. The family was able to pursue a career in politics because of Gandhis.
For four decades, the Pilots benefited from their ties with the Gandhis. After Indira’s death, Rajiv Gandhi shifted him to Dausa, a Gurjar-dominated constituency in Rajasthan . After his death, Gandhis picked-up his wife Rama and inducted her into politics. Later the Congress leadership passed on father's legacy to his 26-year-old son with no experience in politics. As such, politics was presented on a golden platter with a silver spoon to the Pilots by three generations of the Gandhis three times over. So, rebelling against them is prima facie seen as an act of perfidy.
Yet, it is quite understandable why Sachin Pilot has openly rebelled against leadership. His rebellion is, primarily, against Ashok Gahlot, not against Gandhi. He charrioted the truncated Congress to victory in 2018 assembly elections. Congress was routed in Rajasthan assembly elections in 2014 under Ashok Gahlot leadership. Sachin Pilot was sent to Jaipur to rebuild the party. For four years, he toiled hard and rebuild the party into a big force so much that it was able to sink vast cadre-based saffron party. But, after Cong won the 2018 election, he was denied the top job and made to work as Ashok Gehlot’s deputy-the same man who was responsible for party crushing defeat in 2013. Congress lost all
25 Lok Sabha seats To BJP and its ally in May 2019 parliament elections.
On the face of it, Sachin Pilot looks like a rebel, bent on breaking the party to realize his chief ministerial ambition, in cahoots with the saffron party (BJP). But even senior Congress functionaries admit that it’s Gehlot who has “deliberately” triggered the crisis to “get rid of” his potential successor.
Chef Minister went for the kill after he felt assured of a majority in the 200-member state assembly in the recent Rajya Sabha election. Two Congress candidates together got 123 votes, including the party’s 107 MLAs, 13 independents and three from smaller parties. So Gehlot was absolutely confident that even if Sachin Pilot leaves the party Congress govt would survive. Accordingly, Gehlot made all seemingly attempts to prick Sachin Pilot.
The last straw on camel back was a notice issued to him by the Rajasthan Police’s Special Operation Group (SOG) to record their statements in connection with the arrest of two BJP leaders for their alleged attempt to topple the Congress government. According to police sources after getting “instructions” to send notices to the CM and the deputy CM, the SOG had gone back to the police brass for re-confirmation. The notices were sent only after the CM, who holds the home portfolio, re-iterated his instruction.
Everyone could see that the notices might have been sent to many people, but Sachin Pilot was the main target. Pilot saw an attempt by the CM to “finish him politically”, and had conveyed his apprehensions to the high command last week. He didn’t hear from the Delhi leadership, and then came the SOG notice, provoking him enough to launch the rebellion.
That's what Ashok Gehlot wanted. He thoroughly discredited Pilot. And political observers say If Gehlot is able to save the government,it could do irreparable damage to Pilot’s standing in the party.
Its also easy to understand why did Gehlot play such a risky gambit that may even end up bringing his government down? Congress sources say that the CM was preparing the ground for post-2023. If Pilot hung around till the next election, he would be the undisputed successor to Gehlot in the party and also in the government if the Congress were to get a renewed mandate.The high command had denied Chief Minister ship to Pilot in 2018 but there is no way that the young leader could be denied in 2023 by the time Gehlot would be around 73 years old. Sachin could read his long-term game plan.
Analysts say even if Pilot was marginalized in the government, he held sway in the party as the state unit president. Gehlot wanted to end that also. But the real objective of the SOG notice was to trigger a situation where Sachin goes the Jyotiraditya Scindia way, without destabilising the government, say political observers.
Somehow, it appears Congress central leadership, so far playing into BJP game plan, has realized this and is now ready to listen to Sachin Pilot lists of grievances. Pilot today's statement " attempts to malign me with Gandhis' underscores this. Congress must realize that it needs Sachin Pilot more than he needs the party. Congress, at the moment. looks a sinking ship. The Nehru-Gandhi family owned and run Congress needs young mass-based leaders.
(Chander Sharma)