How BJP tackles infighting, revolt
NEW DELHI: When four National People’s Party (NPP) lawmakers withdrew support to Manipur’s N Biren Singh-led government on June 17 and threatened to bring it down, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S central leadership quickly swung into action. Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP chief JP Nadda immediately met the disgruntled lawmakers and NPP chief Conrad Sangma to deal with the crisis. The crisis blew over by June 25 when Singh shook hands with his detractors. Similar intervention in February helped resolve a potential crisis in Karnataka, where several BJP leaders were upset over the denial of cabinet berths.
The grievance redress mechanisms of political parties in such situations have been in the focus again as the Congress government in Rajasthan faces a rebellion by former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot’ and his followers. The fresh crisis for the Congress comes months after its government was toppled in Madhya Pradesh when 22 lawmakers resigned to pave the way for the BJP’S return to power. In both cases, rebels have expressed dissatisfaction over the party’s grievance redress system.
BJP general secretary Anil Jain, who is the party’s Haryana and Chhattisgarh in charge, said the party has multiple systems for addressing issues. “...decisions are taken collectively; it is the party’s position, not an individual’s choice. So clashes do not occur. Our party is not an individual or a personality-centric party; it is based on an ideology,” said Jain, who was instrumental in sorting out differences between Haryana chief minister M L Khattar and his cabinet colleague, Anil Vij.
Bhupinder Yadav, BJP’S general secretary and Bihar in-charge, echoed Jain. “...there is a mechanism for addressing issues and decisions are made in a democratic manner. The other difference is that while in the BJP, the highest decision-making body is the Parliamentary Board, in Congress, it is the Gandhis.”
A third BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, said tensions and disagreements are expected and all parties have safety valves to prevent spillovers. “Differences or clashes between personalities is not a new phenomenon. We have seen this happen between Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, between L K Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In such cases, these leaders used to supplement each other or even surrender to the other leader,” the third functionary said. He said Advani had to show deference to Vajpayee, who was seen as a mass leader. In the BJP, there is also a third authority, which is sometimes seen to serve as the safety valve—its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “The RSS can be described as a friend, philosopher and guide. People can share their views with the [RSS] functionaries and also seek advice,” this leader said.
To be sure, not all disagreements were amicably solved. Yashwant Sinha and Jaswant Singh, who served as finance and external affairs ministers in the Vajpayee government, had a bitter parting with the BJP after complaining of being sidelined. Shatrughan Sinha, Kirti Azad and Navjot Singh Sidhu, who also quit the BJP, made public their disagreements with the party’s leadership.
Congress leader Pranav Jha rejected the suggestion that his party does not have a proper redress system and said the BJP not only irons out but steamrolls and eliminates differences. “From L K Advani to Uma Bharti and Sushma Swaraj, [these] are all examples. We, on the contrary, are a democratic party of living individuals, who aspire and compete like it happens all across the world.”
Ashoka University assistant professor Neelanjan Sircar said it is the very construct of the Congress’s structure that is not based on ideology and makes it vulnerable to defections. “A fundamental challenge for political parties in India is how they prevent defection and how they engineer defection.”
NEWDELHI: It’s a long-held perception that the will of the Congress high command is the final word for everyone in the party. While the composition of the high command has transitioned from Indira Gandhi’s and Rajiv Gandhi’s teams to those of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, this rule has remained a constant. The Ashok Gehlot versus Sachin Pilot fight in Rajasthan is another instance, and maybe even mark a trend of the high command realizing that it is better to go with the regional leader than impose its own favourites on a state unit.
That Sachin Pilot is a favoured face is undeniable. Pilot and Rahul Gandhi both belong to the 2004 batch of first- time members of Parliament. As young MPS, they formed a clique that would, among other things, attend live music concerts at Blue Frog (a now defunct club) where their colleague Milind Deora would be playing the blues.
As Rahul Gandhi became party general secretary, Pilot also grew, becoming a minister of state in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. They both went to St. Stephen’s College, although Rahul Gandhi didn’t complete his degree there, but they also shared other, deeper commonalities. Both had fathers who were trained pilots and both lost them too early in life.
And yet, a week after Pilot’s rebellion against Gehlot, the message to him is unequivocal: he is welcome to come back, but it won’t be by undermining his boss. Gehlot has proved he has the numbers and while Pilot may have genuine complaints against him, they cannot afford to upset a man who commands the maximum number of legislators in Rajasthan. This despite the fact that Pilot has Priyanka Gandhi’s ear. The two have spoken at least twice in the course of the week.
Rahul and Sonia have also conveyed to mediators that they would like him to stay, but not at the cost of overriding party discipline.
It’s as if things have come a full circle in Rajasthan since 2014. That’s the time when the same high command handpicked Pilot to lead the party in Rajasthan after its worst-ever performance of winning just 21 seats out of 200 in the 2013 assembly elections. Pilot took on that assignment after eliciting a promise that Gehlot wouldn’t interfere in the state. And for two years or so, Gehlot held no real position other than being part of a screening committee for Punjab polls in 2016.
In 2017, he was made a general secretary in Delhi, which meant that Pilot got full credit for winning the three crucial by-polls in early 2018. Despite chief minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia holding helm in the state, Pilot delivered the Lok Sabha seats of Ajmer and Alwar and Mandalgarh assembly seats with record margins. His word would now be the last word in the state.
That’s the reason why a contentious rule brought by Pilot for ticket distribution in the assembly polls that year was enforced despite major opposition. According to that rule, all those who had lost the elections twice