Mani Shankar Aiyar: ‘Cong ought to be able to not be INDIA bloc chief… There may be competence in Mamata, others (to be its chief)’ | Political Pulse Information

Not solely might he (Rao) have executed issues otherwise he ought to have executed issues otherwise. He determined to go on a path of appeasement. Appease Advani, BJP, UP chief minister, Sangh Parivar… appease them by bringing in sadhus and sants to speak to them, appease them by believing that the pledges they have been making to the courtroom can be held by them when actually they have been making pledges to their god.

*Within the ebook, you’ve talked about your time within the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, and also you additionally speak about pragmatism in Indian politics – concerning shifting of loyalties. Why do you suppose it has develop into a attribute function of Indian politics?

First, let me say that this complete matter has been handled within the chapter of my ebook referred to as “Spherical Tripping”. Politicians and democracies usually drift… For instance, Winston Churchill… If defection was a part of his life, then are you shocked it’s a part of minor politicians’ lives… There are modifications that happen in circumstances, modifications that happen in particular person political ambitions, modifications that happen in compulsions on coverage and modifications that happen about the place self-interest lies. So all these components come into play when a extremely good, extremely regarded Congress chief like Jyotiraditya Scindia switches in a single day to BJP. Once you see so many Congress individuals today discovering that they don’t have a future for his or her private ambitions… R P N Singh, Jitin Prasada, switching sides as a result of their private ambitions can’t be fulfilled on this aspect.

Mani Shankar Aiyar, veteran chief of the Indian Nationwide Congress and former Rajya Sabha MP, at his residence in New Delhi on 20 December, 2024. (Categorical picture by Chitral Khambhati)

Equally, you see there are a lot of examples of individuals switching for ideological causes… There’s nothing Bharatiya about defections. Perhaps our fashion of defections is Bharatiya however these defections are half and parcel of democracy.

*You will have additionally written about how Sonia Gandhi ignored some clauses to reinduct you into the Congress. Why have you ever then discovered your self so distant from the Congress and the Gandhis in the previous couple of years?

It’s a great query…I’ve steadily been requested these questions (and I’ve) constantly replied that I actually don’t know why.

I had given incidents that occurred, corresponding to my feedback on how one can deal with Naxalism, the place my view is that we should always use the Panchayat system underneath the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act…

Now over that I acquired very exercised when about 76 CRPF personnel have been blown up by Maoist mines and I stated this isn’t the way in which to deal with Naxalism.

We must always return to the Panchayats as envisaged by Rajiv Gandhi and once I stated this the Residence Minister on the time, Mr P Chidambaram acquired very upset and I believe his being upset provoked Sonia Gandhi into talking extraordinarily harshly to me. I took it in my stride as a result of I believed I’d make clear issues once I met her but it surely took about 15 years after that incident of her getting very offended with me on the cellphone for a one-on-one assembly and by that point 15 years in the past was too way back to waste my treasured 5 minutes in asking her why did you scream at me. So, I haven’t discovered.

I don’t know what it’s that the Congress get together dislikes about me however the reality is that a minimum of on the floor the argument is made in two strains. One is a line that Sonia Gandhi made when she was requested by Saifuddin Soz, the then Jammu and Kashmir Congress president, to make me the AICC common secretary for J&Ok and his argument was that of all Congressmen the one who has the best popularity as a buddy of the Kashmiri individuals is Mani Shankar Aiyar. And Sonia Gandhi’s reply was, ‘How can I? He’s a unfastened cannon.’ So, on the one hand they regard me as a unfastened cannon, the place I believe in Gandhi ji’s and Nehru’s Congress unfastened cannons have been thought to be very helpful individuals… The present Congress desires conformism and the way can a maverick be a conformist? That’s one a part of it.

The opposite a part of it’s that maybe as a result of Rahul Gandhi is 30 years youthful than me, and since he is aware of that I used to be related along with his father, he thinks I belong to his father’s technology. However he’s the chief of the Congress and I’m a really humble follower. So I’ve no different however to simply accept the decree that I’m too previous to be an lively politician.

So, I’ve develop into an lively, in the event you like, public mental. However I haven’t left the Congress. And I’ll by no means go away the Congress, particularly not to enter the BJP.

*You will have talked about within the ebook concerning the A Ok Antony committee shaped by the Congress in 1999 after it suffered an electoral setback and also you say that its suggestions have been prophetic.

The A Ok Antony committee in 1999 was the primary of three introspection committees that Antony successively headed. And appointed by the president, who for all three was Sonia Gandhi. She included me (in it). And we went all around the nation speaking to Congress individuals…

And other than what we stated typically, we analysed what had gone mistaken within the 1999 elections in states. After which we got here to sure conclusions, particularly with regard to the organisation of the get together after which with regard to the articulation of our insurance policies…

We made the suggestions. The general tone was that we should always implement the Uma Shankar Dikshit report which had been commissioned by Rajiv Gandhi and which he acquired endorsed by the prolonged assembly of the Congress Working Committee in April 1990, which I attended.

The Congress believes that they wouldn’t have even acquired 44 seats (within the 2014 Lok Sabha polls) if the Gandhi household was not main them. (Categorical picture by Chitral Khambhati)

*Are you able to discuss concerning the Uma Shankar Dikshit panel report?

It was concerning the democratisation of the get together. That there ought to be elections at each degree. And that at each degree lively Congress individuals ought to be chosen and educated in Congress’s ideology. How they need to learn about Congress coverage…We must always recognise that we’re now not within the twenty first century the pure get together of governance. After all, one reply is to strengthen the Congress.

However my expertise of the Congress within the twenty first century after we did the primary introspection report is that it’s a hopeless job. I don’t suppose it’s going to reform itself. So is there an extra answer? Sure. Alliances. In spite of everything the primary UPA authorities was shaped when the Congress solely had 140 seats. However as a result of we had a pacesetter in Sonia Gandhi who was like a magnet attracting the iron shavings.

The essential factor now’s to do it in a a lot larger scale and in a way more environment friendly method than a haphazard higgledy-piggledy method we achieved within the 2024 Lok Sabha elections the place we (INDIA bloc) have been solely 10 seats behind the BJP. If the INDIA bloc had been extra fastidiously and for longer cultivated and its inside integrity strengthened then even in 2024 Narendra Modi would have been historical past. Now he hasn’t develop into historical past.

*Do you suppose some other get together could lead on the INDIA bloc?

I don’t suppose it’s a related query. I believe the Congress ought to be able to not be the chief of the bloc. Let whoever desires to be the chief be the chief. There may be competence in Mamata Banerjee… There may be competence in others within the alliance.

So, I don’t care who turns into the chief as a result of I believe the place of the Congress get together and of the Congress chief will at all times be a significant one. It doesn’t should be the one one. It is going to be the key one within the INDIA bloc. I’m certain Rahul shall be handled with much more respect than he can be because the president of the alliance.

*You will have talked about within the ebook a couple of letter to Rahul Gandhi after you have been suspended from the get together in 2018. You say the letter was attribute of how Congress leaders begged their president for his or her rights. Why does the Congress have such a tradition?

Let me put the entire incident. After my suspension, Priyanka had agreed to transmit a letter by me wishing Rahul on his birthday. I instructed her I can’t ship the greetings straight as a result of I’m suspended. I confirmed the primary draft of the letter to my spouse who isn’t a Congress lady, however a pointy critic. She checked out it and stated why am I cringing like this, and that I used to be 30 years older to him. I modified the textual content, and confirmed her my second draft. She was very dismissive. Then, I wrote a 3rd draft and despatched it.

Now to the second a part of the query. Each single political get together, organisation or NGO, has its personal idiom and tradition. For the BJP, you’ll be able to’t write two strains with out praising PM Modi… I remorse to say now we have had the same tradition within the Congress. And though it isn’t as slavish as it’s within the BJP… He (Rahul) eliminated my suspension in August 2018. I believe my letter might have had one thing to do with it. Though the tone was cringe, it was a part of the get together tradition, and if one doesn’t prefer it, they’re free to depart. And I wasn’t prepared to depart.

As Nehru and Patel have been described by the primary biographers of Indian Independence because the duumvirate that dominated India, so additionally, I consider (Rahul and Priyanka) will represent a duumvirate. Categorical picture by Chitral Khambhati

*Within the ebook, you name the Gandhi household the “bonding adhesive” for the Congress. Do you suppose within the close to future, if the get together can’t obtain electoral success, the Congress ought to search for the highest management past the Gandhi household?

Provided that the conclusion is reached by the get together that they’re dropping due to the Gandhi household. The Congress believes that they wouldn’t have even acquired 44 seats (within the 2014 Lok Sabha polls) if the Gandhi household was not main them. They might have gotten 4 seats. Equally for the Lok Sabha elections this yr, they wouldn’t have gotten 99 seats. As a result of the get together would have break up.

Please keep in mind that Rahul resigned in 2019 and stated that no member of his household might succeed him. For 3 months, the get together tried to discover a chief… In the intervening time, the G23 was elevating problems with revolt. Whereas it was the white flag of give up… The Gandhis are the place they’re as a result of the Congress desires them there. The president is decided by the Congress… It’s a democratic course of. The get together doesn’t consider that Rahul Gandhi is a legal responsibility. He’s regarded upon as an asset, and the BJP is aware of this. No matter his deficiencies – speech, articulation – they carry on attacking him as a result of he’s the image of the Congress they usually carry on attacking Nehru and Gandhis. I’m satisfied that if Gandhi disappeared from the scene, there can be a lot faction combating that we might disintegrate.

*Would Priyanka Gandhi have been higher than Rahul Gandhi?

She is an MP of the Congress for the final six weeks. No, what I foresee as the long run. As Nehru and Patel have been described by the primary biographers of Indian Independence because the duumvirate that dominated India, so additionally, I consider (Rahul and Priyanka) will represent a duumvirate. And it will likely be this duo that would be the face of the Congress for the following 30 years. So I don’t see them as rivals… They’ve determined that of the 2, the face of the household shall be Rahul, however a significant contributor shall be Priyanka. Any try to separate them is certain to fail. Sooner or later, we can have a Congress of Rahul and Priyanka.