Why did R.P.N. Singh quit the Congress and cross over to the BJP? For that matter, why did Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Sushmita Dev, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Ashok Tanwar quit the Congress? If you ask the Congress they will call these leaders opportunistic and point to all that the Grand Old Party has done for them, making some of them the union ministers and giving them party positions. In that Congress is right. These were all leaders who counted for something within the organizational framework. They were also once part of Rahul Gandhi’s inner circle, what was once known as his Camelot, harking back to a time when the Gandhis still retained their Kennedysque mystique. And if Scindia, Prasada and R.P.N. were made ministers solely based on their pedigree, well, then it was all part of the optics that the Congress wanted to convey. This was a party of governance, that had onboard the old guard as well as its vision for the future — young fresh minds, graduates from Harvard, Stanford and Cambridge, from Doon School, Miranda House and St Stephens.
I recall when Jitin, Scindia, and R.P.N. were made ministers during the UPA government along with Milind Deora and Sachin Pilot. If they were accommodated into the Union Government it was not just because of their dynastic surnames (though there is a comfort in the familiar) but also because of the fact that they symbolized the then Congress way of life. It would also be pertinent to point out that all of them were Lok Sabha MPs and not brought in through the Rajya Sabha. Most them belonged to the Class of 2004 which had as its star debut Congress heir apparent, Rahul Gandhi. If the party promoted these faces, it was to further the narrative around its scion, Rahul Gandhi who was being groomed to take over the party some point in the near future. And it is not that they did not deliver. It was R.P.N. SIngh as Minister of State for Home who reached out to the youth protesting against the Nirbhaya gangrape. He did not make politically incorrect statements like some feudal heartland leader saying `Boys will be boys’ but reached out to them, taking delegations to meet both Rahul Gandhi and the then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. As Minister for Telecom and IT, Scindia roped in McKinsey to convert redundant post offices into centres of financial remittances in rural areas (Project Arrow) while Sachin piloted the new Companies Bill through Parliament in UPA2.
The reason this narrative collapsed was that Rahul did not live up to the script. While the others were given ministerial berths, he opted to stay out. And so a Scindia or a Pilot could never be given serious power lest they outshine Rahul Gandhi. Yes, they were made ministers (some in the middle of UPA2) but how many of them were `allowed’ to outshine their colleague and Gandhian peer? It is not that the BJP is any different. No one is allowed to take credit or outshine the Prime Minister (Ask Nitin Gadkari what happens when you do that). But, for all its flaws (or not) the Modi Model is winning elections. And that is what politics is all about. What if Rahul Gandhi had joined the government in UPA 1, learnt the governance ropes and took charge in UPA 2 with his team of young professionals turned politicians. Would 2014 have had a different ending? Maybe not but al teast it would have a fighting chance in 2024. Suppose the people lose faith in the Modi government by the next Lok Sabha polls and are looking for an alternative to the Modi Model? There is no Rahul model in place to give them an answer. Instead, we have Arvind Kejriwal offering the Delhi Model and Mamata Bannerjee offering her West Bengal model.
It is all very well for Rahul Gandhi to complain that `power is poison’ when he is made party vice president. Well if that is the case then perhaps he should be running an NGO pointed out RSS leader Ram Madhav during one of his interviews with NewsX. So, if an R.P.N. has left Congress he is clearly letting it be known that he doesn’t feel there is a political future for him in that party. Ditto for why Swami Prasad Maurya left the BJP. In fact, as one of R.P.N.’s predecessors told me while quitting the Congress, `being a Congress member from Uttar Pradesh is suicidal. A Congress member from Punjab still has hope but not from Uttar Pradesh’.
Judging by the Congress reaction, the party leadership is not too unhappy with the loss of these leaders. We are told that Rahul is in the process of building a new Congress, recruiting talent from outside such as Kanhaiya Kumar, and promoting non-dynasts from within such as Bhupesh Baghel and Charanjit Singh Channi. Well, at least there is a plan in place. Now what the party needs is some consistency.