All is Not Well
The Pilot vs Gehlot feud has an interesting offshoot in Delhi, with the old guard supporting Ashok Gehlot and advocating that Sachin Pilot be expelled from the party. However, the Gandhi siblings are said to be keen to avoid this and are looking for a way out. Rahul Gandhi has deputed his favourite general secretary, K.C. Venugopal to work out a compromise. However, while Sachin Pilot is said to be keen to meet them halfway, it is Gehlot who apparently remains adamant. His case being that why should he compromise with someone who has been attacking his government. Given this, it would be hard for Sachin’s supporters to work on a solution, unless of course Rahul himself leads from the front and “persuades” Gehlot to come to the negotiating table. Insiders reveal that at the famous Gehlot-Sachin compromise meet in Delhi, the two met with Malliakarjun Kharge and Rahul separately and not together, except for a brief span of few minutes so that a photograph could be taken and released to the media, indicating that all is well. But all is not well.
No Resignations
The Balasore rail accidents had the Opposition baying for Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s resignation but despite that (or perhaps, because of that), the Prime Minister remained adamant and has not even once hinted that Vaishnaw should demit office. His focus is on accountability and having the Railway Minister on ground, helping with the relief operations, instead of taking the high moral ground of resignations. This is in keeping with the Modi government’s policy of not reacting to allegations till they are proved in the court of law. For instance take the Vyapam scam accusations against Shivraj Singh Chouhan or the allegations against the late Sushma Swaraj or Vasudhara Raje Scindia. No resignations were ever sought. This is unlike the UPA government where resignations were sought by the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on the whiff of an allegation, even though these same allegations did not face the court’s scrutiny later on. Then Cabinet ministers such as Shashi Tharoor, Ashok Chavan, Ashwini Kumar and Pawan Bansal all had to resign at some point or the other. As a senior Congress minister ruefully recalls, we were all victims of a misplaced morality.
Congress Reshuffle?
What is holding the Congress reshuffle, for it has been nearly three months since Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was authorised to nominate a new CWC and also reshuffle the party headquarters. Congress workers are also waiting for the new team as that will help them gauge how much control Rahul Gandhi still has over the organisation and the kind of free hand that Kharge has been given. Will he, for instance, continue with key Team Rahul members such as K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken and Jairam Ramesh? Kharge has his own rapport with some of them, but clearly, he would like to put his own stamp on the organisation. It would also be interesting to see Rahul and Priyanka’s role—will Priyanka be given some other responsibility other than Uttar Pradesh? Her role in the Himachal and Karnataka campaigns has gone down well with the party cadre. But perhaps Kharge wants to resolve the Rajasthan leadership tussle before taking on this project.