Why Does Ashok Gehlot Worship the Gandhi Family?

           

         -- RVR

You know Ashok Gehlot. He is Rajasthan’s chief minister, in his third term now. But his high honour lies elsewhere. He takes pride as a steadfast loyalist of the Congress Party – or precisely, of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. On that, he left no one in doubt when he told reporters five days ago:  

 

“Vinoba Bhave had once said that his relationship with Bhagwat Gita was beyond reason. Similarly I would like to say that my relations with Gandhi family are exactly like relations between Vinoba ji and Holy Gita. In other words my relations with Gandhi family have been and are beyond all logic and reasoning. And it will continue to be so throughout my life”

 

       Gehlot is 71, in his 14^th year as chief minister of Rajasthan. He knows that a younger and vibrant Congressman in his state, 45-year-old Sachin Pilot, has been aspiring for that office and working on it for a few years. Feeling threatened in that office, and suspecting some signs of support for Sachin Pilot from the party leadership, Gehlot said this also at the same time:

 

“There is no alternative to experience at any level. …… The young leaders in Congress should work hard and the central leadership will definitely give them a chance.”

 

Does Ashok Gehlot sound funny and self-centred in these utterances? Surely yes, and a few things are a clear pointer.

 

The Congress is a political party in a democracy. It should aim to win the trust of people, get enough votes and form governments at the Centre and in the states, provide an efficient corrupt-free administration and improve the country’s economy and people’s welfare to maximum levels.  The best way for any party to do this is to let a clean, strong, and forward-looking leadership based on merit come up within the party – and then ensure that real talent keeps freely growing across the party to reach positions of power and responsibility as they arise. But that culture took leave of the Congress some decades ago, to the delight of established heavy weights like Ashok Gehlot.

 

Who doesn’t know that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi tightly hold the reins of power in the Congress Party?  Sonia Gandhi is enigmatic and Rahul Gandhi is quixotic. Priyanka Gandhi is treated like a goddess in the party. Her husband Robert Vadra tags along for his joy and more.  Together they are called “Gandhi family” in political parlance. It is to them Ashok Gehlot looks up in reverence.

 

Six years after Rajiv Gandhi’s death Sonia Gandhi became a primary member of the Congress Party in 1997. Two months later she became the President of the party. She continued as President at a stretch for nineteen years and, after a break, again for three years.  That is nearly twenty-two years in all. Should be an unmatched record in any political party in a democracy. 

 

Now, to Gehlot’s unabashed comparison of his devotion to the Gandhi family with Vinoba Bhave’s relations with Bhagwat Gita.  

 

Lord Krishna’s teachings delivered to Arjuna on the battlefront are comprised in Bhagwat Gita. Vinoba Bhave had studied Bhagwat Gita and was deeply inspired by the lessons he gained from the Gita.  He had translated the Gita into Marathi. He had given talks on the Gita, including many to his compatriots when they were all in jail as freedom fighters. To him, Bhagwat Gita was an abundant source of valuable knowledge.  “The place of the Gita in my life is unique. She is always there to help me in need”, wrote Vinoba.  

 

The same Bhagwat Gita can be a beacon of knowledge to anyone else too – not just Arjuna or Vinoba - who benefits by reading that book or listening to its recitations. That is, the Gita doesn’t selectively reward those who adore the treatise. The Gita, doesn’t look for support from its followers.  It talks about detachment and explains it, and it doesn’t look for quid quo pro of any sort from anyone. This is where Bhagwat Gita differs on all fours from the Gandhi family. The clever Ashok Gehlot knows it too. Then why did he utter the words ‘Bhagwat Gita’ when talking of his relations with the Gandhi family?  Well, that was a good way of pleasing the high ego of the entire Gandhi family who will relish it too.  

 

Are we being overcritical of Ashok Gehlot? Is it possible he was absolutely truthful or sensible about his relations with Gandhi family? Not at all. 

 

One may extol the virtues of another and look up to that other on being benefited by the other. This is possible in life, especially personal life.  But rules of engagement or behaviour in an organisation are different. The Congress Party is a political organisation meant to serve people by forming governments and running them well with the best of its talents, young or old.  The chief of the party must not be a special benefactor of any partyman who has no great attributes.  Nor should the chief make his partymen, especially the second level leaders, feel free to eulogise the chief sky high.  

 

Ashok Gehlot has not told us about any great special qualities he found in Sonia Gandhi that inspired him to function as an able chief minister or in otherwise serving his people.  Yet he adores her so high. He would also know that Sonia Gandhi loves to see her son Rahul Gandhi become prime minister, and her daughter Priyanka Gandhi wield influence in the party and possibly in a government.  So he clubbed them all together and said that his relations with the “Gandhi family” – not just with Sonia Gandhi – was like Vinoba Bhave’s relations with Bhagwat Gita. Clever Gehlot!

 

 

Ashok Gehlot will value his relations with the Gandhi family in tune with his being kept in high positions in the party and in the government in Rajasthan, whatever he says in public. Having delivered a most humble message for the ears of Gandhi family, he has also cautioned the aspiring young Sachin Pilot that “there is no alternative to experience at any level. …… The young leaders in Congress should work hard and the central leadership will definitely give them a chance.”

 

Rajiv Gandhi was 40 when he became India’s prime minister. His mother Indira Gandhi was 48 years and 2 months when she entered that office.  Does Gehlot say that a Congressman of 45 in Rajasthan – merely because he is not older – is unfit to become even a state chief minister?

 

Ashok Gehlot is not any exception on the Indian political scene. You’ll find replicas of him in many other states, in the Congress Party and in several regional parties.  He doesn’t have a good accident of birth in, or matrimonial alliance with, a powerful political family in India. That hurts him, especially when the current members of that political family don’t have gifts of reason, high integrity or great leadership and yet rule the party high and mighty.  So he looks up to that family and is overly nice to them. And even declares that his relations with the Gandhi family are "beyond all logic and reasoning".  

 

What can we do when the decay in our politics is still largely in place, looking for good chances to grow further?  I guess we can read Bhagwat Gita and try to find solace.

 

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Copyright © R. Veera Raghavan 2022