Why are senior Opposition leaders, who emerged decades ago, relying on the most unreliable, ambitious, and controversial Arvind Kejriwal and his small party?
The accusation of assault by Swati Maliwal against Arvind Kejriwal’s men has become a headache for the leaders of the opposition I.N.D.I. Alliance. The public’s anger is already evident, as during the final rally of the Maha Aghadi in Mumbai, people began to leave as Maratha leader and top opposition figure Sharad Pawar took the microphone following Kejriwal’s rant. It’s truly a strange incident taking place perhaps for the first time in any democratic country in the world, where a police report has been filed alleging that a female MP from the Chief Minister’s own party was brutally beaten and had her clothes torn in the main room of his lavish bungalow, and the serious matter is going to court.
The last three rounds of the Lok Sabha elections are crucial not just for Sharad Pawar but also for other key Opposition leaders like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Hemant Soren, K. Chandrashekar Rao, Uddhav Thackeray, and Farooq Abdullah, regarding their prestige and future. Sharad Pawar is testing his strength to crown his daughter Supriya, Lalu Yadav for his daughters Misa and Aparna, Sonia for her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka, Akhilesh Yadav for his wife Dimple, and KCR for his daughter Kavita, while other leaders also face the challenge of assuring social security for millions of women along with their sons, daughters, wives, nephews, and nieces. On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are confident of the support of millions of women.
The most interesting aspect is that Sharad Pawar, Sonia Gandhi, Lalu Prasad Yadav, KCR, and Shibu Soren will not be seen playing significant roles on the platforms of the Lok Sabha elections five years from now. The extent of joy or pain regarding the direction of their political legacies remains to be seen. These families have been key figures in Indian politics for half a century. There is also a recurring question among the public about why these veteran politicians, who emerged decades ago, now have to rely on the most unreliable, ambitious, and controversial Arvind Kejriwal and his small party.
Sharad Pawar hopes to secure the Maratha and Muslim votes in Maharashtra, Lalu and Akhilesh Yadav aim for the Yadav-Muslim vote bank, Sonia Gandhi counts on Dalit, backward, and Muslim votes, and KCR looks to the Telugu and Muslim voters to save his crumbling palace. For all these leaders, nothing is more important than the honour and family reputation of women in these communities. By praising the ideals and names of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Tilak, Gandhi, and Ambedkar, can they gain public support in the elections by carrying around a party leader accused of serious charges such as the liquor scam, Jal Board scam, and the brutal beating of a female MP on their electoral chariot?
If spending crores of rupees on legal maneuvers and baseless propaganda could guarantee electoral success or power, the parties of Pawar, the Gandhi family, Lalu-Mulayam, Mayawati, Om Prakash Chautala, Sukhbir Badal, Chandrababu Naidu, or Farooq Abdullah would not be in their current dire straits. Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal have spent heavily on advertising and event management companies to enhance their images, but votes in India cannot be bought like in the US.
Despite such significant image management, Rahul Gandhi hasn’t visited Amethi or Rae Bareli in the last five years, let alone given an on-record interview to any “most favoured” journalist. He did give an interview to YouTube channel Curly Tales during his Bharat Yatra. Years ago, after a failed interview with then Times Now news channel editor Arnab Goswami, he hasn’t had the courage to sit for a one-on-one interview again. Instead, he has done many controlled press conferences with strategist Jairam Ramesh, who has never contested elections like panchayat, municipal, assembly, or Lok Sabha, but has secured a Rajya Sabha seat four times through party MLA support, ensuring journalists couldn’t ask more than one or two uncomfortable questions.
Sitting in one’s den and roaring like a lion doesn’t scare away the animals of the jungle, nor does it make the prey surrender in fear. So, how fair is it to rule over people’s hearts and minds for a long time just by playing with emotions under the name of the old sacrifices of the Gandhi family? If victory could be achieved solely through family and emotions, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi (the learned and honest son of Devdas Gandhi), would not have been defeated by Rajiv Gandhi by about 271,000 votes in the 1989 elections. At that time, the talk was that it was a contest between the real Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson) and our Gandhi (Rajiv, active in Amethi and Rae Bareli through the political groundwork laid by his brother Sanjay Gandhi during Indira’s rule). Despite being a renowned writer and thinker, Rajmohan Gandhi was badly defeated in the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi after getting trapped in Kejriwal’s web as an AAP candidate.
Mahatma Gandhi’s capable grandson lost twice due to being associated with the wrong party—Congress. At that time, AAP hadn’t made a pact with Congress as they did this time. Congress fielded Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit, and BJP’s Mahesh Giri won the election.
After Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri is regarded as an ideal leader of honesty in India. Despite being a very close top leader to Nehru and later becoming Prime Minister, leading to Pakistan’s defeat in 1965 and the popular slogan “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan,” none of his family members were given a place in political power during his lifetime. He even imposed strict restrictions on his sons using government cars or facilities. After Shastriji’s death, his sons and family members did enter politics, becoming legislators, ministers, and MPs, but they never reached top positions or became contenders for Chief Minister or Prime Minister.
I had a good acquaintance with his three sons, Harikrishna, Sunil, and Anil Shastri, met them, and wrote extensively about their activities. It can be said that the Congress did not give much importance to the Shastri family. That is why his sons and grandsons have been active in various parties—Janata Dal, Bharatiya Janata Party, Aam Aadmi Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal—engaging in some social and political activities. This means that, unlike a monarchy, in a democracy, the throne of power cannot be inherited.