WILY GEHLOT PIPS PILOT FOR NOW
The Sachin Pilot-led revolt in the Congress party in Rajasthan started with a bang a month ago but ended in a whimper on August 14, as the 19 legislators who had raised the banner of revolt sheepishly returned to the Congress fold. Pilot himself, who had insulated his flock in a luxury hotel in Manesar, Haryana, for the entire period evidently did not have the stomach for a prolonged fight with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and capitulated when he found that many of his supporting legislators were preparing to ditch him and retur n to the Gehlot-led dispensation. For the record, Pilot’s meeting with Congress bigwigs-- for mer party president Rahul Gandhi and his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-- clinched the issue of the retur n of the rebels. Indeed, Sachin Pilot was looking for a facesaver, having failed to gar ner the crucial numbers and found in the meetings with Rahul and Priyanka a pretext to patch up. The Congress high command has assured Pilot that his grievances would be redressed in due course but that is only a verbal assurance which could easily be flouted. Clearly, Sachin Pilot, whose sincerity and ear nestness were much touted earlier has been exposed for his lack of strategic thinking and his failure to follow through with his plan to oust Gehlot, whose penchant for manipulation was enormous.
Pilot’s lack of political guile was evident the day he declared that he would have no truck with the BJP. Until then, the BJP had been insisting that Pilot, like Jyotiraditya Scindia earlier in Madhya Pradesh, would have to join the BJP. But once Pilot decided not to align with the BJP, it was difficult to fathom how he could think of displacing Gehlot. The fact that Gehlot heaped scor n on Pilot, at one stage calling him ‘nikamma’ (useless), and divested the young colleague of the post of deputy chief minister and state party president, were deliberate moves by the wily CM to lower Pilot’s stock with his supporters and with people at large. It is, however, debatable whether Gehlot would benefit in the long run, considering that he would be seen by the masses as a smart operator who is too clever and therefore unscrupulous and unreliable. Since elections to the state assembly are far away, it is unclear whether the benefit of the possible disillusionment of the people with Gehlot will go to Pilot or to the BJP.
A lot would depend on how Pilot plays his cards though he has given a poor account of himself in the now-defused crisis. In fair ness to Pilot, it can also be said that the role played by for mer chief minister Vasundhara Raje contributed to queering the pitch for Pilot and was instrumental in defeating his design. Vasundhara made it known to the BJP high command that she was opposed to any BJP deal with Pilot. That she had a better equation with Gehlot is also beyond doubt. It is believed that Vasundhara enjoys the support of a majority of BJP legislators and was in a position to flex her muscles at any hint of the BJP toughening its stand in favour of Pilot. Vasundhara has not had the best of relations with strongman Amit Shah but is able to have her way due to her undoubted clout in the Rajasthan unit.
As things stand, while Pilot’s supporters stand demoralised and have joined ranks with Gehlot, who was until recently their bête noire, Pilot himself has been shortchanged. Gehlot has not expressed regret for the nasty remarks he made against Pilot and neither the deputy chief ministership nor the party presidentship have been restored to him. In fact, Pilot has been relegated to a seat in the second row of the assembly, a big comedown from the chair next to the chief minister that he occupied earlier. Even if there is some face-saving for mula worked out for Pilot, the message is loud and clear: that Sachin Pilot stands devalued in the current dispensation. Considering that at one stage, the Congress was working out deals to appease Pilot to lure him back, the current situation is far from comforting for him. The Gehlot versus Pilot battle will continue behind the scenes and a showdown may well come again in the future.