World re-nowned chess player Siegbert Tarrasch once said, “I look one move ahead… the best!”
Like chess, politics is also played by advance moves to checkmate the opposition. That’s the exact strategy Gandhi family has followed since decades to fool its opposition and public both. They know very well how to keep themselves ahead in the game of politics. When everyone started believing that Congress party is doomed, they miraculously saved their face by a marginal victory in recently held assembly elections. They won in Madyha Pradesh and Rajasthan by a little margin, but they are trying to portray it as a huge victory and looking to move ahead in race for 2019.
Let’s analyze their moves one by one to understand this game in details. Their very first move started even before the elections by not declaring any Chief Ministerial candidate to keep all the leaders on toe and united for elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh that ensured them a much-needed victory. Next move was their choices of Chief Ministers in both states (MP & Rajasthan). They picked up their old stalwarts, Mr. Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh and Mr. Gehlot in Rajasthan who has been loyal to Gandhi family and who would not create any competition for their leader, Rahul Gandhi in 2019 general elections. They completely ignored the fact that Kamal Nath’s role in 1984 riots has been controversial and could harm them in Punjab in future.
The whole family, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (Priyanka apparently did not play any significant role in these assembly elections and did not even campaign but actively participated in decision making) sat together and picked up the leader that would suite their narrative most. So, picking up the trusted old leaders who has always been loyal to family and have no or very less visibility on national politics was their default choice. As for Gandhi Family, maintaining their dynasty is superior than any other motive.
Mr. Pilot, who played a very crucial role in Congress victory in Rajasthan couldn’t accomplish the position he was supposed to and same thing happened with Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh. It is quite evident that both Sachin Pilot & Jyotiraditya scindia are young dynamic candidates in Congress and hold a potential to be mass leader in future if given an opportunity to perform. Both have been in politics since almost 15 years and have also been member of Lok Sabha for multiple times. But if you look at their portfolio, they have been always rewarded for lesser than they deserved. Similarly, after holding victory in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Congress conveniently snubbed Sachin and Scindia and put them on sidelines again to avoid any possible conflict in future.
To get a better idea about this whole saga, we need to look back in history of Congress party. Late Rajesh Pilot (Sachin’ Father) and Madhavrao Sciendia (Jyotiraditya’s father) died in unfortunate accidents in gap of one year. That was time when Congress as a party was going through leadership crisis and these two eminent figures were making themselves relevant for Prime Minister’s position. Their rise at national scale could have a threat for Gandhi family, who most of time have been at the top of party leadership. Taking the cue from history, Congress obviously do not want any contender against Mr. Gandhi with in party who can threaten his position for 2019 elections either anytime soon in future.
After winning elections in 3 states, next move was played to create a narrative through their media wings that new version of Rahul Gandhi has arrived (RG Version 3.0), matured, immaculate and focused. Since last one week this narrative has been constantly played on various channels to feed in our brains that we have a news leader rising on the horizon. Pappu has suddenly been changed into Parampujya.
Ironically, since decades a major section of media houses have been putting their resources to make a political dynast a legitimate leader of largest democracy in the world. Now to further enhance their own image and to get a taint on their only enemy our current Prime Minister and a leader of substance Mr. Modi, Congress has knitted another narrative with false facts on Rafale. They wanted to use Joint Parliamentary Committe (JPC) probe as a weapon to keep this issue alive till 2019 and project a corrupt image of Modi Government. But the over enthusiasm of people like Arun Shourie, Prashant Bhushan and Jaswant Sinha with other petitioner in Supreme court for the CBI enquiry of this deal punctured their plan. Even after the SC verdict they want a JPC probe to keep alive this agenda as they have no other legitimate issue to corner Modi Government.
The last and most important move of the game was to make sure that Mr. Rahul Gandhi becomes a default choice for Prime Minister of Mahagathbandhan (even before its inception), an absolute strategy which might help regional parties leader to get restricted to their respective states and ultimately giving Congress the supreme cadre of Prime Minister. For that purpose, they picked up another dynast, MK Stalin who is trying to capture DMK vote base after his father’s demise. Recently, MK Stalin proposed Rahul Gandhi as a Prime Ministerial candidate (very well thought move to put pressure on regional parties) for united opposition during their party event, of course in presence of Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Similarly, Congress Media is also pushing the same agenda projecting through different regional candidates such as Hardik Patel as if it was all scripted in advance.
Unfortunately, many regional parties like SP, RJD also follow the same template of dynasty politics. So, it would not be surprising if they succumb under pressure and make a way for Gandhi Family and live in their shadow forever. However, it would be suicidal for the parties like BSP, TMC & BJD which has strong regional vote base and power to claim for throne in 2019. For BJP, these coming months would be very crucial time and they need to be aware of the dirty politics being played around. Most importantly, regional parties must choose their alliance diligently to avoid falling in line of dynasty politics. After tasting victory in three states Congress is smelling the next opportunity and wants to maximize it in all possible ways. Because all they want is the throne in the name of their dynasty.
