He is great at political manoeuvrability. He can make both his worlds meet, the pro-reforms and populist face.
New Delhi: Being sworn in as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister was a trophy Kamal Nath had worked hard for. Even since he was made the state Pradesh Congress Committee chief in April 2017, he had his eye on the top job and pulled out all stops to ensure a win. The challenge he faced was formidable for in Shivraj Singh Chouhan the BJP had a popular Chief Minister in place, not to mention the backing of the RSS network.
However, if there is one thing that Nath is good at is putting systems in place. And as he himself said in a TV interview, “I was hungry—hungry for the Congress to make a comeback.”
Of course he was hungry for the top job as well. And no one can argue that he hasn’t worked for it. Realising that the Congress apparatus needed some outside support if it was to take on the RSS grassroots connect, he first reached out to the samajik sangathans (caste based organisations) such as the Sindhi Samaaj, Saahu Samaj, Dhobi Samaj, Baniya Samaj etc. He also made inroads into the employees’ unions—there are apparently 65 of them—as well as the state’s bureaucracy. “Most of the bureaucrats met him late at night so they couldn’t be spotted by the then government,” explains a key Kamal Nath aide. In addition, Nath tapped into the welfare workers, the Asha karyakartas and the Anganwadi workers, for they had a formidable network and goodwill at the village level. The important thing was both access and support, which Nath gave liberally.
He also realised that he had to keep the warring factions together—this was one reason why he was promoted over Jyotiraditya Scindia, because Nath’s candidature was acceptable to former CM Digvijaya Singh. Unlike the other two, it is Digvijaya who has a pan state connect with the party workers and he gave Nath vital feedback during ticket distribution. He also took residence at Bhopal, moving into 9, Shyamla Hills, adjacent to the CM House at 6, Shyamla Hills. Interestingly, this was where he and Digvijaya and Scindia met for breakfast on the morning of the results before they all proceeded to watch the results from the Pradesh Congress office in Bhopal. It gave the right optics of unity, that was somewhat strained during the campaign. However, as the day wore on and the results only came in at midnight, this was perhaps the longest time Digvijaya and Scindia had spent together in the same room, leading a party MLA to point out, only Nath could have pulled it off.
The numbers when they came were just short of the halfway mark, giving the Congress 114. The Bahujan Samaj Party had 2 MLAs, and the Samajwadi Party had one. Nath did not waste any time in dialling Mayawati the very next morning to ensure her support. Although the Congress had opted against a pre-poll tie-up with the BSP, Nath had kept his channel open with Mayawati. Most Congress leaders recall how as Parliamentary Affairs Minister Nath swung the BSP support for the UPA government on the crucial FDI in retail bill. This had been passed in the Lower House but the numbers fell short in the Upper House. A UPA defeat in Rajya Sabha could dent Manmohan Singh’s credibility. Realising this Nath reached out to Mayawati and when the BSP leader stood up to speak in the House she remarked, “If the Opposition’s motion (against FDI) is carried, then it will get another political issue to disrupt the House and many important bills such as reservation for SC/STs in private sector jobs will not be passed.” Nath couldn’t have presented the case better. A disappointed AIADMK leader, V. Maitreyan, who spoke after Mayawati, said, “If the government wins, it’s going to be the victory of manoeuvrability.” The weekend after the Rajya Sabha win, Nath moved the SC/ST Bill in Parliament. No one can beat Nath when it comes to political manoeuvrability and ensuring all the chess pieces line up in his party’s favour. In addition to the BSP, he also had the support of four Independent MLAs, whom he and Digvijaya Singh had unofficially “backed”.
Interestingly, Nath was not expecting this shortfall. Soon after the results he told the media that he was expecting 130 seats. However, the Vindhya region let the party down. As he himself says, we got more seats here in 2013 when we were at our lowest.
However, the one thing that worried him soon after the polling was a fear of the results being manipulated. So on 4 December he led a delegation of Congress leaders to the Election Commission and requested that when the votes were being counted the returning officer should sign each round and declare it instead of waiting for the entire rounds to be over, for then, as he said, “after 20 rounds there is scope for fudging”. This is one reason why the MP results took so long to count.
He had certainly bargained for all eventualities except of course the battle from within. For even though Nath had been assured the CM’s post, the decision was kept pending for nearly 48 hours after the results came in, because a state rival, Jyotiraditya Scindia had to be placated. A measure of the Congress infighting was also how soon after the results came in, the capital’s media was flooded with stories about Nath’s alleged involvement in the 1984 riots—an allegation that incidentally was not played up by the BJP during the campaign. But BJP spokespersons in TV studios shared WhatsApp messages they were getting from a faction of MP Congress leaders to play up this allegation despite Nath telling the media, “there is no charge and no case against me”.
A strong administrator and a nine-term MP, Nath was one of the key performers in the Manmohan Singh government as the Cabinet Minister for Commerce. Before that he’s been a Union Minister (independent charge) for Environment, and later Textiles, in the 1991 Narasimha Rao government. As Commerce Minister wearing sharp suits and carrying his Trion palmtop, he had represented India at the WTO, making a strong pitch for protecting the rights of developing nations. During the WTO meet at Sao Paulo, while under pressure from developed countries to open up India’s agricultural market, he commented sarcastically, “Next time can you bring a picture of an American farmer? I haven’t ever seen one. I have only seen US conglomerates masquerading as farmers.” The comment went viral and the Congress often quoted this as an example of its moves to protect the livelihood of poor farmers against the interests of developed countries.
Confident of winning his constituency over and again Nath doesn’t hesitate to speak his mind. During the Manmohan Singh government he took on the clout of the now extinct Planning Commission led by Montek Singh Ahluwalia for not releasing enough funds, quipping that “in order to solve the problems of the rural poor the Planning Commission has hired a team of urban rich”.
Yet, more often than not, Dr Manmohan Singh and he were on the same page along with P. Chidambaram and Sharad Pawar as the pro-reformist faces of the government, batting for such moves as FDI in retail. Nath, however, argued in favour of more autonomy for the states, saying, “let each state frame their own guidelines”. This pro-States vs Centre outlook will stand him in good stead in his new avatar.
That he can make both his worlds meet, the pro-reforms and the populist face, was evident when he got industrialist Sunil Mittal and a bunch of CII honchos to fly down to the largely rural Chhindwara where he lured them over lunch to invest in his constituency. Those who are looking for Nath’s model of development can well look at Chhindwara which he has developed on the lines of pampered constituencies such as Sharad Pawar’s Baramati. And, there is also a 105 ft tall Hanuman temple there in keeping with the line of conservative Hinduism followed in the Congress campaign.
It was Indira Gandhi who took the Doon School educated Nath to Chhindwara and introduced him there as her third son. In his study in Delhi’s Tughlaq Lane there are photographs of Indira Gandhi, Sanjay, Rajiv, Sonia and Rahul—for he has worked closely with each, and in a sense represents a sense of continuity in Rahul’s Congress. In Madhya Pradesh circles, both he and Digvijaya Singh share a working rapport, having both been groomed in state politics by Arjun Singh. However, when Digvijaya Singh fell out with Arjun Singh in 1995, he had Nath’s support. And this time round, when its Nath’s turn at the CM’s chair, he has his old friends support.
One of Nath’s favourite TV Shows is the BBC mini-series, House of Cards. And as he went into the Madhya Pradesh campaign, he ensured that all his cards were lined up just right for the final cut.