By Arun Srivastava
If the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi would have refused to listen to the suggestion of Rahul Gandhi to appoint Navjot Singh Sidhu as the Punjab Unit president or if she had initiated action against him once he launched tirade against the Punjab Congress chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, the Congress would not have lost the game in that state. She had committed big mistake by allowing Sidhu to continue. Once again she has committed mistake by asking the disciplinary action committee to explore action against him for his anti party activities.
Any action would propel him as the hero, the conscience of the rebels and disgruntled Congressmen. Sidhu has proved to be a liability for any political party he worked with in the past. His meeting with election strategist Prashant Kishor ought to be not taken seriously. PK has been a shrewder person than Sidhu. He has worked with most of the rising and strong politicians, Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee, M K Stalin and Jagan Reddy. Obviously it would be naive to believe that he should act on the advice of Sidhu. In fact Sidhu has turned himself vulnerable by venturing to counsel PK.
While the Congress Disciplinary Action Committee is working on the complaint the rebels are feeling elated and nurse the view party cannot harm the mercurial leader. After the break of the disciplinary action, he quipped “time will answer questions about him”. Disciplinary Action Committee member Tariq Anwar indicated that action against Sidhu would be decided after consultation with other members.
Sidhu has responded to the developments through a tweet: “Apne khilaf baaten main aksar khamoshi se suntan hun… jawab dene kahaq main waqt ko de rakha hai (I often hear talk against myself in silence.… I have left it to time to give the answers).” This is once again his arrogance that made him challenge the Congress leadership. Sidhu is almost going solo, without following the directions and advice of the party chief Sonia Gandhi. He nurses the belief that Rahul Gandhi would bail him out of the present crisis.
While Rahul used his authority to bail out Hardik Patel who even ventured to remove signs of his association with the Congress from his Twitter handle despite being the working president of the party, he may not prefer to throw his weight behind Sidhu. In the case of Hardik he reached out to him and asked the Gujarat leadership to resolve the problems. But in the case of Sidhu he would not prefer to go to that extent as Sidhu has chosen to act tough with the leadership. What has irked the leadership is his well planned design to show it in poor light. Despite several warnings he continued to denigrate Channi and his government which simply helped the AAP.
His tweet after meeting PK, just after he declined the Congress offer, has in fact mocked the Congress leadership. His tweet was unambiguous; “The first blow is half the battle my friend…. A good beginning always makes a good ending…. Best always in your sincere efforts to honour the spirit of our Constitution…. ‘The power of people must return to the people’, manifold….”
PK announced on Thursday that he would start his padayatra of Bihar covering 3,000 kms from October 2 this year He will be meeting thousands of common people in the state and get acquainted with their problems and views. It is apparent that PK is targeting his state Bihar as the ground for his political career, irrespective of whether he sets up his own political party or not.
For PK his prestige and dignity has been more important that his personal aspirations. It was vilification of his prestige that saw him entering into personality clash with Nitish in 2020 which eventually resulted into his expulsion from JD(U). It retaliation he launched “Baat Bihar Ki” campaign to show how the state lagged behind its counterparts. PK is contemplating to launch ‘Jan Su-raj (or people’s governance)’. It is not sure that it would be a political party, but one thing is certain that it would embarrass all the parties by offering the new development model for Bihar. He is planning to launch an organisation that would act like the conscience keeper for political structure of Bihar is evident from his meeting prominent members of the civil society, including doctors, RTI activists, retired teachers those who have good names with a “clean record”.
In his tweet PK had mentioned’ My quest to be a meaningful participant in democracy & help shape pro-people policy led to a 10yr rollercoaster ride! As I turn the page, time to go to the Real Masters, THE PEOPLE, to better understand the issues & the path to “Jan Suraj”-Peoples Good Governance. Shuruat “Bihar se (starting from Bihar)”. Obviously it does not imply that he has been contemplating to launch his own political party.
It was in 2020 he had announced; “I will only go to every panchayat, block, and the village of Bihar for the next hundred days. Out of the 8,800 panchayats of Bihar, I will choose one thousand such people, who will understand that Bihar should stand in the leading states of the country in the next ten years”. This also did not manifest that he is keen to form a political party. For him development of Bihar has been the primary motive.
His move is more akin to Jaya Prakash Narayan’s move to clean the political rot and provide a new breed of leaders. It is widely felt that PK is trying to offer an alternative model. PK is not a naïve to subscribe that seminars would establish him as a politician. PK knows that being a poll strategist and being a practising politician is a different thing. PK knows that he is relevant in the political establishment and system of the country till he guides the political leaders and strategies electoral battles for them.
Consultants usually abhor the idea of becoming executives. A strategist works within broader framework of suggesting the ways and means. But a leader has to operate within the framework and policies of his party. The rumour that PK wants to become the Congress chief was spread by some Congressmen who were opposed to him since 2017. He dissociated himself from Congress in 2017 only for these leaders. Once again the same leaders have successfully created obstacle in his mission to revive the Congress. These people are reluctant to take the orders from PK.
PK has in fact brushed aside all nonsense of running the Congress without the Gandhis. He knows that Congress without Gandhis would be a nonexistent entity. PK has suggested for invigoration of the three organs of the party — the Congress Working Committee, Congress Parliamentary Board and Central Election Committee—but at no stage he suggest that the Gandhis would have no role. He has ensured that the Gandhi triumvirate is accommodated in the highest positions. He has even suggested major interventional role for Priyanka Gandhi. The Congress needed the counsel of such an expert like PK. The loss is of the Congress Party, not of Prashant Kishor. (IPA Service)
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