Smoking Peace Pipes

The unity moves of Congress leaders in MP, although superficial, has served to boost workers’ morale

NK SINGH

The change could not have been more marked. 

Three months back Madhavrao Scindia, the former civil aviation minister, had publicly insulted Arjun Singh, the union human resources minister, at a Congress (I) rally in Madhya Pradesh. Both of them had gone to Rajnandgaon to address the rally. 

However, Singh reached late for the meeting. Instead of waiting for him, Scindia finished his speech and left the venue as soon as Singh’s helicopter was sighted.

Last week it was different story when Singh went to Gwalior to attend a party rally organised in Scindia constituency and was received at the railway station by Scindia.

The Congress(I) leaders of Madhya Pradesh have now again assembled to smoke peace pipes. The warring chieftains met last week at Dabra, a small tehsil town near Gwalior in an effort to solve their disputes at Scindia’s behest. 

The result was an uneasy truce among various rival factions of the party.

The meeting had been planned by Scindia. He had invited not only Singh but also the two Shukla brothers, union minister V C Shukla and his elder brother S C Shukla, the main adversaries in state politics. 

Braving a hailstorm , which delayed the meeting by more than two hours, a large number of Congress(I) workers and a host of junior and middle-ranking party leaders, who had been fighting each other on the ground level, assembled at Dabra. 

The rally had an obvious effect on the mood of the Congressmen, boosting their morale. After all the warring group leaders had put aside their differences and decided to share the same public platform and put up at least a façade of unity for public consumption. Addressing the rally, scindia declared: “This is the power of Madhya Pradesh Congress. We are ready to face any crisis.”

But this was not the first time that the Congress(I) leaders in Madhya Pradesh had tried to achieve unity. They have been making periodic attempts at times of crisis. The last time they had done it was during the 1991 parliamentary elections.

Most of the time such moves have been superficial attempts. This time too it was a farce, a show put up only for public consumption, with the rivals trying to undermine each other’s position behind the scene.

If fact, former chief minster S C Shukla came to attend the meeting with great reluctance. He simply did not want to share any public platform with Singh. 

His reading of the situation was that prime minister P V Narasimha Rao would not be too pleased with any effort to accord legitimacy to Singh’s campaigns. However, he turned up for the meeting at the last moment after being informed that Rao had approved the idea of a unity rally.

Although a single meeting cannot be construed as a campaign, even an appearance of unity would help the Congress(I) in the state at this juncture. As it is, the Congress(I) is a badly divided party right now, with the three main groups lead by Singh, the Shuklas and Scindia pulling in different directions. 

The Dabra meet, as former chief minister Motilal Vora put it, “has energised the party workers”. In fact, Scindia wants other leaders of the party to carry on the good work done by him.

The Dabra meet had a different message which was missed by most of the people I was a formalisation of  the uneasy alliance that Singh and Scindia have entered into during the past few weeks. 

Advertisement published in local newspapers by the supporters of the two leaders underlined the fact that now “Arjun” and Madhav’, the mythological friends in the Mahabharat, would prove a formidable combination for the BJP in real life. 

In fact, at the Dabra meet Singh was given more importance than the Shukla brothers, confirming the worst suspicious of S C Shukla.

The alliance between Singh and Scindia is also not new. The two have a love-hate relationship. Scindia has played a key role in Arjun Singh’s ascent to power for the first time in 1980. 

Since then Scindia has been participating in the frequent anti-Singh campaigns off and on. He was himself denied the chief minister’s post in 1989 when Singh’s men preferred Vora to him. 

The thing is the Scindia also needs Singh’s support. Singh is the only leader who can stand up to Rao and at the moment Scindia’s relationship with Rao is not altogether a happy one. 

Ever since his resignation from the union cabinet, he is feeling neglected by the party high command. The final blow came when his name was not even considered for the high-power consultative committee constituted for Madhya Pradesh.

But the main beneficiary of the unity move will be Singh. He has been under tremendous pressure in his home state at a time when he wants to spread his wings. 

The unity will mean a let-up in the attack against him and provide him with breathing space. No wonder, he is the most enthusiastic supporter of the move. 

But as Sitaram Kesri, the welfare minister, told the rally, with an open jibe at Singh, the unity is need not only in Madhya Pradesh. Said he: “Unity is required at the national level too.”

Economic & Political Weekly 5 June 1993

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