Kamal Nath & Scindia need a makeover

NK SINGH

Arjun Singh became the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for the first time in 1980 with the help of Kamal Nath, then 33 and a good friend of Sanjay Gandhi. Shivbhanu Singh Solanki, a tribal leader, had polled more votes than Singh in the elections for leadership of the Congress legislature party.

Then something amazing happened. Nath ‘transferred’ his votes to Singh, reducing Solanki’s majority to minority! It was a well-scripted move, approved by Sanjay Gandhi, then heir apparent of Congress party, to help Singh. Nath was doing what he had been asked to do.

In a repeat performance 13 years later, Kamal Nath, then a minister of state in Narasimha Rao government, helped Digvijay Singh become the chief minister in 1993. The drama enacted before the CLP election has become a political folklore ---- a classic case of Machiavellian intrigues.

With Arjun Singh’s covert blessing, Nath threw his lot with Digvijay Singh at the last moment, flummoxing rival groups of S.C.Shukla and Madhavrao Scindia. Digvijay Singh secured 103 votes in the 174-strong CLP. The plane that Scindia had chartered, kept at readiness at Delhi airport, never took off for Bhopal.

To understand politics, one must remember history.

Both Nath and Digvijay Singh received their political grooming from the same guru --- Arjun Singh.  They might seem to be at loggerhead at times, even gunning for each other. But whenever challenged by an ‘outsider’, they tend to close ranks.

Subterranean world of realpolitik

This is what happened this week as Digvijay Singh worked the subterranean world of realpolitik and helped Nath become the president of MP Congress Committee.

More than the desire to help Nath, what seemed to have worked in this case was Digvijay Singh’s efforts to scuttle Jyotiraditya Scindia’s chance. Jyotiraditya is the son of Madhavrao Scindia, a known rival of both Singh and Nath in Congress politics.  

The post in itself is not important for someone of Nath’s stature. Most of the past presidents of MPCC have been much junior to him, the kind of people who had to wait for an audience with him.

What was important, however, was that in the process the anti-Scindia groups prevailed upon the party high command to hand over reins of the party to a collective leadership rather than making the former scion of Gwalior princely family the chief ministerial candidate.

If Scindia lost the battle for leadership, it was partly his own doing. His star was on the ascent after Congress candidates’ sparkling victory at Kolaras and Mungaoli assembly by-elections. But instead of seizing the opportunity and starting a state-wide campaign for Congress, the scion of Gwalior’s former ruling family went abroad, as most people of his class do every summer. The former Maharaja, who lives in Delhi, made it clear that he would soil his hands in state politics only if he was made the face of the party.

But the high command preferred a collective leadership rather than putting all its eggs in Scindia’s basket. It made Nath PCC chief and Scindia campaign committee chief. It also carved out areas among various regional satraps, giving an indication of shape of things in the forthcoming assembly election.

Enormous task 

Despite the palpable anti-incumbency, the task ahead is enormous for the two gentlemen entrusted with the job of bringing back the Congress to power after 15 years. Factionalism is least of their problems.

Groups are ingrained in Congress culture, a party made essentially of different shades of opinion. Congressmen are known to fight even during crucial elections. They are notorious for their crab-like mentality, pulling everyone else down in their race to power.

It is in the genes of the party that harboured once communists, capitalists, Hindu fanatics, Islamic revivalists and socialists, all under one roof. The warring factions unite only when the party high command cracks the whip.

What both incumbents need is an immediate makeover. Both Nath and Scindia are quintessential products of Lutyen’s Delhi. They might be winning Lok Sabha elections from MP, but outside their constituencies they are perceived to be the burra sahibs from Delhi. Both have never dirtied their hands in state politics.

Nath, 71, is entering the dusty provincial roads of state politics for the first time in his 41 year old career. So is Scindia, who never wanted to sully his hands in MP as long as he was a minister in central government. Digvijay Singh is also based in Delhi for nearly a decade.

And they are pitted against the home-grown son of the soil, farmer-politician Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who still enjoys a boy next door image.

Apparently, both Nath and Scindia need an immediate makeover. If they want to succeed, they must shift their base to Madhya Pradesh instead of operating from soul-eating Lutyen’s zone.

Absentee landlordism is not going to help the Congress at the hustings.

Powers That Be, my column in DB Post of 28 April 2018

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