It is an area of contention, how Sachin Pilot was recast and repositioned in the rank and hierarchy of the Congress’ organisation, after having chosen a direct audience with the Gandhis in Delhi last evening along with the rebel MLAs who stood by Pilot, packed up in a resort in Haryana’s Manesar. Owing to a lack of clarity of command offered by the central commandment of the Indian National Congress, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot took on the likes of Pilot by opting for heated charges and comments against Pilot for the latter’s lack of sincerity and commitment to the objective and ideology of the Congress.
Said to be directly or indirectly securing the cause of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in the State of Rajasthan, Pilot and his supporters acted as special guests of Manohar Lal Khattar in Haryana, giving topmost priority to their adjacent neighbours.
However, Pilot, in his press briefing after having communicated his concerns to the party leadership, sounded pretty bold and confident while detailing his grievances in length to the top brass by being assertive in his redressal. The party would surely want to accommodate Pilot in a new avatar, given his oratorial and managerial skills and potential as a grassroots worker and leader of the Congress, stirring the party to scale heights in the State Assembly Elections of 2018. However, they would, in this process, shirk from intervening in dealing with Ashok Gehlot who, apart from being an old Congress guard and a three-term Chief Minister, possesses grip and command over the State’s polity and administration.
Also, with a wafer-thin majority in the Rajasthan Assembly, the Congress wouldn’t afford that chance, precisely for this reason — the Congress has formed a three-member committee to resolve and redress Pilot’s grievances at the earliest. Pilot has also blamed the infighting arising out, owing to ideological differences between him and Gehlot in the functioning of the government and the Congress state unit responsible for aggravating the situation.
Thus, by burying the hatchet, he would want to be seen as someone wanting to mend his association and ties with Gehlot. For now, Pilot would want to be cast as a formidable political face by simply shirking off entering into any kind of a conflict of interest and opinion with Gehlot.
If Sachin can be Rajasthan’s Pilot, then Gehlot surely qualifies for the title of Rajasthan’s captain, as this statement sums it all. Otherwise, the rebel MLAs from Pilot’s camp would have surely desisted from eyeing a meeting with Gehlot in their personal capacities at the first place. Also, for elongating the standoff and crisis, there were two major developments greatly impacted and influenced Pilot after he utterly failed in mustering the support of a good number of Congress MLAs in putting and presenting any serious crisis for Gehlot, who is unlike Kamal Nath.
Secondly, Vasundhara Raje Scindia, a tall and invincible leader of the BJP, declined to give in to the diktats of the central leadership of the party, making her position clear by paying a visit to the top brass of the party. She enjoys a valuable presence in the State party unit, apart from her clout and dominance in the party hierarchy and organisation and commanding a great degree of loyalty of the workers and cadres of the party.
However, as she reluctantly rescued herself from being counted in the coup meant to topple the elected state government in Rajasthan, the doors for an industrious Pilot already got closed on the BJP. Thus, seeking an urgent communication with the Congress leadership became an inevitable fact for Pilot as he would want to deliver, yet again, for his party with which he shares an esteemed association and want to contribute towards it with the best of his capacities.
The Congress should recast and launch Sachin Pilot as it did for Hardik Patel in Gujarat by bringing a new lease of energy and potential to boost the morale of the party cadre and shape their actions and behaviour for the party so as to be taken as a serious contender against the BJP.
In my opinion, Pilot offers both an occasion and opportunity, adding up to the advantages and prospects for the Congress party by plugging the loopholes partly responsible for the grand old party’s misses and misfortunes by sincere admission of truth and honesty acquainted with conducting one’s difference of opinions, ideas, and thoughts by holding the spirit of party discipline and order. An individual can never aspire to become bigger than the party, causing an overlap, marring the functional abilities and actions of the rank and file of those affiliated ideologically and organisationally with the said political party.
Pilot walked a tight rope in the beginning, thus ensuring Gehlot’s way forward in tackling the party high command by taking him in his tight grip and control signalling a full stop for Pilot on his home turf. However, all is not over in the Congress for Pilot. He should deliberate upon his recasting from now on with a new synergy, energy, enthusiasm and vigour as the assembly session begins soon.
Let’s bring this desert coup to an end!