History and politics are inextricably tied in Gwalior’s Scindia palace. When the royal scion Jyotiraditya Scindia recently spoke against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, he wasn’t just aiming for Bhopal. He wanted a piece of Delhi too. His rebellion is also against the dynasty-run Congress party at the centre. But history books will tell you that the last time a Scindia captured Delhi was in 1770. And within two years, Mahadji Scindia restored Shah Alam II to the throne.
If anyone can repeat and rewrite history in the clan, it is Jyotiraditya Scindia. Not just his pedigree, take a look at the keywords in his CV too – ‘maharajah’, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, United Nations, Harvard and Stanford University. Add to that an impressive orator and former Lok Sabha MP. It is his moment of audacity and will to attain power. But can a dynast rebel against the Congress dynasty?
The closest that a Scindia has come to the centre of power was when Jyotiraditya’s father Madhavrao Scindia was inducted into the government by Rajiv Gandhi and given the charge of a transformative ministry like the railways. Under P.V. Narasimha Rao, he handled civil aviation.
Also read: Hooda, Tharoor, Scindia — Why Sonia Gandhi won’t crack the whip in Congress, yet
A dynast’s rebellion against dynasty
His son, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had to fill the void when his father died suddenly in a plane crash in 2001, has also had his moment under the sun – as minister of state for power (with independent charge) in Manmohan Singh’s UPA-2 government. But the Grand Marathas, who once ruled vast swathes of middle India, have never been kings in contemporary India.
Perhaps, Jyotiradtiya’s insurrection against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is a way to reassert his family’s domination. Or perhaps, it is the Gandhis getting their just deserts after having run the party as a family firm – the rebellion is coming from a dynasty much older than theirs.
It is coming from a fellow dynast whose father chose the Congress party despite his mother Vijayaraje Scindia’s vehement objections. Madhavrao Scindia stuck to that decision if you don’t consider his brief foray outside the party when he floated a regional party, the Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress, after being chargesheeted in a hawala case.
Father’s friend is now a rival
Among the many ironies is that Jyotiraditya is rebelling against Kamal Nath who was once his father’s greatest ally. Madhavrao Scindia once said of Kamal Nath, and Jagdish Tytler, that he found men like them “capable and intelligent”. “I think they have the urge to do things and that’s half the battle won.”
Almost 40 years later, his son seems to think differently. Protesting against “outside interference” in the government (read Digvijaya Singh), Jyotiraditya says, “The issues raised by Umang Ji (Madhya Pradesh minister Umang Singhar) should have been paid attention to. The chief minister should listen to both the sides, talk to them and come to a solution”.
Also read: Jyotiraditya Scindia backs Modi govt’s Kashmir move as list of Congress dissenters grows
How two Scindias rebelled against Congress
His changed attitude towards the Gandhis is also markedly different from that of his father, who refused to rejoin the Congress because it remained a “pocket edition of Rao”, and was only interested in a “Congress (I) with the Rajiv Gandhi flavour”. He returned to the party in time for the 1998 elections.
In contrast, Jyotiraditya, after losing the Lok Sabha seat of Guna, is not afraid to call out Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath. As per an India Today report, he has said: “It is after 15 years and extreme hard work that the Congress party has come to power in Madhya Pradesh and it has been only six months… Several Congress leaders have high hopes and are expecting development from the party and the administration. There are differences and the government should sit and sort these out.”
He has attacked the Kamal Nath government for not cracking the whip on illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh. He has also supported “the move on Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and its full integration into (the) Union of India”. “Would have been better if constitutional process had been followed. No questions could have been raised then. Nevertheless, this is in our country’s interest and I support this,” Jyotiraditya Scindia said.
But his rebellion is just a cry for attention in Sonia Gandhi’s Congress. He was, after all, in the front row among Rahul Gandhi’s favourites. Now, he is one of the many as Sonia’s old-guard makes a comeback.
Congress and second-gen dynasts
Veteran journalist Rasheed Kidwai says Jyotiraditya’s supporters are unable to come to terms with his Lok Sabha defeat from Guna this year. “Unlike Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, Jyotiraditya in Madhya Pradesh is not in the line of succession. Then, there is a clamour for a Rajya Sabha berth in early 2020 too for him,” he says. “In the present-day Congress, no one wants to miss the bus. Matriarch Sonia Gandhi has so little to offer in spite of immense goodwill. Therefore, there is restlessness all over,” says Kidwai.
In public, though, Jyotiraditya is still speaking the language of a Gandhi loyalist. Asked for his reaction on reports that his supporters are demanding that he be made the Pradesh Congress Committee chief in MP, Jyotiraditya said: “I will do what the high command says”.
But the high command has always had a hot-and-cold relationship with second-generation dynasts of other families. Whether it is Sachin Pilot, who had to remain content with the deputy chief minister’s position in Rajasthan, or Jyotiraditya, who had to see Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh (also a minor royal from Raghogarh which falls under erstwhile Gwalior empire) run his state.
Newly-minted BJP member Jay Panda believes Jyotiraditya’s rebellion is long overdue. “Talented Congress leaders should have long ago responded to their party’s disconnect with the public and India’s national interest,” he says. He describes Jyotiraditya as an extrovert with a charismatic personality. “His family lineage notwithstanding, he had first established himself in an impressive international career before joining politics,” he notes.
Panda says though they have occasionally been on opposite sides of debates, “where we have jousted with our wits rather than decibels, in person I have always found him warm and friendly”.
Also read: Discontent, dissent & defiance in Congress as Gandhi family begins to lose grip on party
BJP a natural habitat for Scindias
What is Jyotiraditya’s future? In the Congress, it is unlikely that he will have a place at the top, except as a permanent cheerleader for an erratic Rahul Gandhi, and a fall guy for his equally inconsistent sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
He may well find a place in the BJP, which has been his family’s natural habitat since his grandmother joined the Jana Sangh in 1967. His aunts Vasundhara Raje and Yashodhara Raje Scindia are in the BJP and even his late father, Madhavrao, won his first Lok Sabha election from Guna on a Jana Sangh ticket in 1971. But Madhavrao fell out with his mother over a series of issues, foremost among them being the influence of her private secretary Sardar Sambhajirao Chandroji Angre, and joined the Congress in 1980.
As senior journalist Pankaj Vohra notes: “His extended family has been aligned with the BJP. There is speculation that he could also look at an innings with the Sangh Parivar given that neither Kamal Nath nor Digvijaya Singh are favourably inclined towards him”.
Vohra adds that though Jyotiraditya is extremely articulate and accomplished, his loss from his stronghold is going to have a strong impact on his future. “He is blessed,” says Vohra, “because the media has always backed him, much before he bloomed into a promising member of the Congress’ younger lot of leaders”. “Like his late father, he has to prove his political credentials beyond the rajwada. He would be an ideal leader if the Congress were to project him as the chief ministerial nominee from Maharashtra given that the Scindias originally are from there,” says Vohra.
He calls him one of the most competent politicians of his generation. But in the new Congress, where paranoia reigns at the top, and paralysis runs deep, competence is never enough.
The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal.