On an early winter morning in November 2018, Sachin Pilot arrived at Chhan village — part of the Tonk assembly segment that he was contesting from in the upcoming Rajasthan state election — mounted on top of a mare. An otherwise assertive Pilot, always exuding confidence, smiled sheepishly when the women of the village rushed to tie him rakhis.
But his next move came almost naturally — Pilot went ahead, greeted the village sarpanch and asked him about his kids. “Whenever he would visit a village where his father had a connection, he would immediately remind the sarpanch of their time together,” said Mohammad Iqbal, a senior journalist based out of Rajasthan who travelled with Pilot’s convoy in the run-up to the 2018 election.
Pilot, whose father died in a tragic car accident in 2000, was all too aware of his dynast-image, and wished to go out of his way to seem like a ‘grounded politician’, and ‘Rajasthan’s son’. Part of this required him to ‘look and sound’ a certain way and carry that well-crafted image to ensure his acceptability among the masses.
Showing off his ability to wear the traditional safa in less than 30 seconds, and greeting everyone he met on his campaign trail with a “Ram Ram Sa” was in sync with his effort.
In support of #SafaWithTwitter!
पगड़ी राजस्थान की शान है।
वीर धरा की पहचान है।@avinashkalla @vishvendrabtp pic.twitter.com/C5jtlXKrcg
— Sachin Pilot (@SachinPilot) June 4, 2020
Whatever Pilot did, seemed to work like a charm. The Congress party came back to power in Rajasthan defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), although by a slim margin of 99-73. With support of independents and other allies, as well as from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs who joined the party, the Congress was able to form the government with 125 seats in the 200-member assembly.
Eighteen months later, Pilot, who steered his party to victory, was sacked from the posts of the Deputy Chief Minister as well as the Rajasthan Congress chief. Contrary to all speculations, he insists he has no intention of joining the BJP, even as the Congress leadership accuses him of hobnobbing with the party.
Where the Rajasthan leader would land after boarding his flight of political rebellion is still a guesswork in progress in the political circles, from Delhi to Jaipur, and this is why Sachin Pilot is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
Also read: Sachin Pilot & Co will be 49th breakaway from Congress. But only 16 survived on their own
Dynasty roots and the headstart
It’s widely been said that while Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was busy discharging his responsibilities as the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, it was Sachin Pilot who led the party to victory in the 2018 assembly election.
“But that was his job as the state party chief, I don’t get why people go so overboard in appreciating him for it. He only did what his job was,” Sandeep Dikshit, former Congress MP and son of former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, told ThePrint.
The role of Pilot’s ‘dynasty roots’ are often underplayed in the analysis of his career trajectory, leaders argue.
After Rajesh Pilot’s sudden death in 2000, his wife Rama Pilot took over as MP of Dausa Lok Sabha seat after winning the byelection. Four years later, 26-year-old Sachin Pilot won from the same constituency, becoming the youngest parliamentarian back then. It was also the year he married Sara Abdullah — daughter of Farooq Abdullah, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. “Do you think I or Sachin Pilot or Jyotiraditya Scindia would have ever won our first elections if we weren’t sons of former Congress leaders? You can’t claim to be an ace runner when you were given a headstart in a race,” Dikshit said.
An MBA graduate from Wharton School, Pilot’s close aides say he imbued the party with a ‘corporate zeal’ after being made the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee chief in 2014.
But he felt he was given “the raw end of the deal” when he was made the Deputy CM in 2018, and purportedly continued to face humiliation thereafter.
Pilot was reportedly not informed about the six BSP MLAs joining the Congress. A booklet released by the Gehlot government on its achievements skipped any mention of Pilot and his ministries.
“He accepted the post and tried to adjust. But over the last two years, he was choking. He wasn’t invited for the important celebrations, he wasn’t kept in the loop about major policy decisions,” a close aide of Pilot said.
Pilot and 18 other ‘rebel’ MLAs from his camp were served a disqualification notice Wednesday over alleged ‘anti-party’ activities. The Congress has gone on to release audios of alleged conversations between MLAs from the Pilot camp and BJP leaders planning to topple the Gehlot government.
“Investigation will reveal whether this is true. But if Pilot does join BJP, it will raise a greater question on just how ideologically weak and unstable Congress is, and how flexible its young turks are,” said a senior congress leader requesting anonymity.
ALso read: Sachin Pilot is not Himanta Biswa. Every Congress rebel cannot win elections for BJP
Parallels with Scindia
In an Off The Cuff episode from October 2017, Pilot can be seen emphatically defending the Congress as a party that encourages young talent, and enumerating his umpteen accomplishments.
“I became MP at 26…I became minister at 32, I became party president at 36, and if I still want more from the party, then I think it’s wrong. It’s time for me to give back to the party,” Pilot had said.
Pilot was sharing the stage with another young scion of the Congress — Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP in March this year and toppled the Kamal Nath government in Madhya Pradesh by what was nothing short of a coup.
In the course of the same discussion, on being asked whether the Congress should have a CM face in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan before the 2018 assembly elections, pat came Scindia’s pithy reply: yes.
But Pilot took his time and gave a much more diplomatic, leader-esque response about ‘taking everyone together’, a stance often taken by the Congress before an election or after a victory.
“I don’t think it’s right for us to have just one (CM) face in Rajasthan, we should have 10,” Pilot had said.
Despite the differences between their style and stance, comparisons between Scindia and Pilot have often been made, mostly clubbing them together as Congress’ young turks.
For Dikshit, however, there is one major difference between the two — “Scindia is insufferably arrogant and Pilot is sufferably arrogant.”
Both Scindia and Pilot were seen as Rahul Gandhi’s ‘chosen ones’ — the favourite confidantes.
“I would see this young lot sitting together in Parliament — Pilot, Scindia, Jitin Prasada and others, but I had little to do with them,” Mani Shankar Aiyar told ThePrint.
Soon after, however, Aiyar sat up and took notice of Pilot when the latter was made the minister of corporate affairs in 2012 under Manmohan Singh-led UPA II.
Pilot fielded questions from everyone, including then leader of opposition Arun Jaitley who would go on to succeed the ministry, albeit in a senior role.
“I saw him pilot the Companies Act with a total command in the subject and a real eye for detail. His ability to answer on his feet without consulting people around him really impressed me,” Aiyar said.
In a column in The Indian Express, Aiyar has rued over the fact that Rahul Gandhi is often betrayed by those he loves the most: Scindia and now Pilot.
“But it’s worth wondering why he gets betrayed like this, why he isn’t able to retain confidantes. I think the problem isn’t that he chooses ‘young’ people, but that he doesn’t choose the right kind of young people. He chooses people whose personal ambitions override the party’s,” a senior congress leader told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
Sixty-nine-year-old Gehlot also snubbed Pilot and his perceived image of being a well-spoken, Delhi-media friendly politician. “Speaking good English, giving good quotes and being handsome isn’t everything. What is in your heart for the country, your ideology, policies and commitment, everything is important,” Gehlot said earlier this week.
Former Assam chief minister and Congress leader Tarun Gogoi has slammed the young party leaders of the Congress, including his son Gaurav Gogoi, for thinking that chief minister-ship is their ‘birthright’.
“The problem with these young people — even my own son I will say — didn’t come from the grassroots. A grassroot leader understands all the challenges and troubles,” Gogoi said in an interview.
Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said he ‘wholeheartedly’ agrees with the sentiment of his father.
Also read: Sachin Pilot has done the unthinkable — united all TV channels from NDTV to Republic
Is ambition a virtue?
But many other younger leaders of the party argue that ‘ambition’ isn’t a quality that should be looked down upon.
Pradyot Manikya Deb Barman, the former president of the Congress in Tripura, broke rank from the party last year over differences with the high command, which he said was “not serious in handling young leadership.”
However, Barman did not join the BJP, but went on to form The Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance or TIPRA, which he describes as the ‘principal opposition’ to the BJP in the state.
From Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra to Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, there is enough precedence for Pilot to follow if he wants to form his own party in the state.
“He shifted base to Jaipur, next to the party headquarters after becoming the party president. And even before that, he took part in protests for the Gujjar community and faced arrests,” Saud Saidi, former president of the Tonk District Congress Committee, said.
Saidi says Pilot has garnered enough support among the masses — particularly mastering the caste-combination.
“Gujjars and Meenas are historically seen as rivals here. But if you see the MLAs in his camp, it has equal numbers from both communities, which is a great success,” Saidi said.
Political analyst and a visiting fellow at policy think tank Observer Research Foundation, Rasheed Kidwai agrees that Pilot would be able to lead a third front — but not until 2023. “Rajasthan has been a two-party state. And in today’s age the lines are very clear: you are either pro-BJP or anti-BJP”.
“So even if he does form his third-front, he will first have to wait until the next assembly election to do that. But the rebel MLAs wouldn’t stick along with him for that long. And even after that, he will have to choose his allegiance as an ally to a party,” Kidwai added.
Views are personal.
Congrass has produced tapes of conversation discussing how to topple the government. Either the tapes are fake and a Gobbles type fake propaganda to destroy the protagonist or actual recording of conversation illegally representing emergency type conditions. The whole hearted support of jihadi anti CAA journalist to congrass represents another dangerous phenomenon. A wake up call to people as to condition that exist under congrass rule.
You have written an eye opening article. Similar kind of thing happened with me in my worklife.
The problem is people forget that whatever success they have got is not due to them and their hardwork but is due to the grace of God.
Once we achieve something or get something (in this case Pilot go his initial success due to his fathers connections and not due to his hardwork) we start to forget our roots and become arrogant and egoistic.
Everyone sees the top of the tree/plant(materialistic success) but we forget that roots(what led him/her to this place, God etc) is solely responsible for we are today.
Sachin didn’t “lead” Congress to victory at all. He’s in that position only because he was friends with Congress dynasty. Sachin is a left over of dynasty politics