Scindia is just a symptom
The TV channels in India have gone berserk with the coverage of Jyotiraditya Scindia’s political moves in the last 24 hours. In the absence of facts, the channels resort to “sources” and their own “guestimates” for the truth, which are usually coloured by what their political masters want them to talk about.
The political debates have veered from painting Scindia as an opportunistic politician, to someone who has been wronged by the indecisive Congress leadership easily manipulated by wily politicians like Digvijay Singh who have a vested interest in the state and some rootless but influential cronies of the Gandhi family.
While the merits or otherwise of Scindia’s decisions will reveal themselves in the near future, what is obvious is that this is a big setback to the GOP of India — the Congress party. He is one of the more articulate and influential leaders of the new generation (he is only 49 which is just over adolescence in Indian politics), and who also has a spotless clean image. He is also a dynast, which is one big virtue to be successful in Indian politics.
But most commentators seem to be missing the woods for the trees in this whole episode. Scindia is a leader who is a second generation Congressman, very close to the Gandhis (he was like a prompter to Rahul Gandhi during the last term of Lok Sabha and the one who RG winked at after the famous hug with Narendra Modi) and completely trusted by them. He agreed to let Kamal Nath become the CM of MP after last assembly elections, for the larger good of the party.
His leaving the party is actually a symptom of how deep the unrest within the rank and file of the party is (or whatever is left of the rank and file). He is not your typical opportunistic or greedy politician who would leave the party just to get a RS seat or a cabinet berth. It is pretty clear that he has lost hope with the party leadership.
After the last LS elections, the party has not been able to hold an AICC meet for almost an year. They are not clear about who is leading the party. Rahul Gandhi did well to quit from the top job, but what he didn’t do well is a successful transition to a new deserving president. So the period since he resigned till the time his mother Sonia Gandhi resumed her old job as an interim president was actually a period of a leaderless party. This was something that workers of this party who are used to kow-towing to a larger than life leader, were not able to deal with. Even after Sonia Gandhi decided to take over (and many believe she did it just to keep the seat warm for her son or daughter till they made up their mind to take the job), she did it as an interim president. She has not inspired anyone outside her coterie. She is not a leader of the masses, and cannot match her opponents either in action or in word. She very much wants her son to take the job, but the son has made no bones about his reluctance to do so. The daughter, who must be her second choice, doesn’t have the requisite experience and has her own baggage to deal with.
In such a situation, it is the old coterie of Sonia who seems to have taken control and driven the party into a numbness. The coterie revels in wielding their power over day to day transactions and scoring brownie points, while the clueless head of the party thinks that these experienced war horses are God’s gift to her. They are only indulging in self-preservation and propagation of their family members. The long term success of the party is the least of their concerns. None of them have any interest in taking on the might of the ruling party, nor do they seem to have the agility or the fortitude to do so. All they want is that they should have access to crumbs that they can throw towards their own set of rootless followers.
Where does that leave the younger, politically savvy, ambitious and capable leaders/workers of the party? They have nobody to inspire them. They have nobody to look up to. They have nobody to guide or support them. They don’t even have anything to look forward to. The senior wily foxes are only trying to cut them short to ensure that their own undeserving progeny gets the long rope to build their career.
Scindia’s departure from the party has thrown it into a crisis where they could lose a state government immediately. But if the party decides to continue to behave the way it has in the last few months, it will only lead to more such departures and weaken the party irreversibly. But if they treat it like a wake up call and focus on the reasons for his discontent, they may be able to salvage some of their lost glory.
But for that, a certain ailing 74 year old mother of two, will have to smell the coffee and disregard all the noise from her clique of cheerleaders. Is she ready to do so? Only time will tell.
