S A H RIZVI
THE TIMES KUWAIT BUREAU, NEW DELHI
My proximity to late Congress Party leader Madhavrao Scindia began with my stint as Political editor and then as Editor of Delhi Mid-Day. Over the years we would talk on phone or meet very often.
Madhavrao Scindia was an avid reader of Mid-Day and perhaps this brought me closer to him as well. For me, he was the best source of information on Congress inner politics and he trusted me to the core.
Our relation continued even when he was out of Congress and contested as an independent in the 1996 Lok Sabha polls. He won the election with a huge margin and we had a headline ready, ‘Maharajah turns the table on Rao’.
When we met in Delhi over dinner, he took me to a corner of his Safdarjung Road residence in New Delhi and requested, “Please don’t refer to me as Maharajah in the paper”, I said, “Done”.
One day he called me in his office, reacting to a story on the Congress that I did, “How do you read my mind so well,” he asked.
“Sir, I know that you always do everything which is right and also think in that direction: It is that easy.” He conveyed his praise, and so did I.
Once an Alliance Air plane crashed early in the morning in Patna in July 2000, he knew of our newspaper deadline. His secretary Khanna called me and connected me to him. Madhavrao Scindia was now donning his role as former Civil Aviation minister and gave his reaction to the crash.
His timing was so accurate that even before the government could react, Scindia had made news.
My association with Scindia was well known and when his plane crashed and news came in several journalists were among those killed, many called me and my wife at home to ensure I was not in the plane.
It was through my effort and that of Hindustan Times owner Shobhna Bhartiya that he took Rupinder Singh as his political advisor. Rupinder was tragically among those who perished in the crash.
He was media-friendly but he drew compartments and that reflected in his style of functioning. Rasheed Kidwai, a gifted political reporter, was among those who had his ears…
[Edited excerpts from The House of Scindias: A Saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue, by Rasheed Kidwai]
Rasheed Kidwai was not only a source of information for me, but every day he had lots of stories and gossip to tell. Many times, he would assist me when there used to be a story drought.
A brilliant political writer, Rasheed’s first book on Sonia Gandhi was a runaway bestseller and even Hollywood planned a movie but technical issues came in between.
I totally agree with Rasheed’s observation that, “Madhavrao Scindia, like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Pranab Mukherjee, was probably one of the best prime ministers that India never had. His rise was cruelly cut short by fate – at the same time as when the Congress was on the trail of a comeback.
An indication emerged in that direction when Sonia Gandhi made Madhavroa Scindia as Deputy Leader of Lok Sabha, a year before his death.
Writes Rasheed in this book, “Scindia died in a tragic plane crash on 30 September 2001, just eight months after the death of his mother, Vijaya Raje Scindia. But while the ailing Rajmata was in her eighties and had the satisfaction of seeing her party, the BJP, firmly on the seat of power, Madhavrao was just fifty-six, in the prime of his political life.
Less than three years later, in 2004, a Congress-led coalition would come to power at the Centre and remain at the helm for the next ten years. Madhavrao would have been Sonia Gandhi’s first choice as prime minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government instead of Dr Manmohan Singh.
While that will always remain in the realm of conjecture, there is little doubt that within the Congress Madhavrao was much more popular as a leader than Manmohan Singh, who is by nature a reticent man. A measure of Madhavrao’s popularity can be estimated from the fact that he would win every Congress Working Committee election he contested by a huge margin, without even being part of the ‘informal panel’ that would be formed as a quid pro quo to garner votes from delegates.
He also shared a unique understanding with Sonia Gandhi. In private conversations, Madhavrao was perhaps alone in a league of Congress leaders addressing politician Sonia on a first name basis. He would, however, address her as ‘Sonia ji’ in the presence of others and at formal party forums. Sonia used to address him as Madhav and often invited him for a cup of tea or coffee at rather short notice too. They had known each other from the time of her arrival in India and her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi in 1968.
Madhavrao was aware of the Italian-born party president’s inner conflict on opting for the ‘big chair’ of the country’s prime ministership whenever such a situation may come to pass. It was not that Sonia had discussed this hypothetical scenario with him, but political events in 1999 had given Madhavrao an insight into the matter.
This was the same period when ties strengthened between Madhavrao and Sonia Gandhi, already wary of Rao, and looking for a political role. Madhavrao went out of the way to help Sonia continue as the head of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), the country’s premier and wealthiest cultural institution. It was Madhavrao’s machinations that Sonia was made life trustee of the IGNCA.
Rasheed’s present book is a beautiful historical journey of the Scindias, their growth, the palace intrigues and essentially what made Scindias so different from many of the former princely state rulers. A must read, it gives a vivid description of the transformation of India from being a grouping of princely states to the present democratic fabric.
The flame of Scindia family is now in the hands of his able son Jyotiraditya Scindia who is presently carving a new legacy with the BJP.
[The book by Rasheed Kidwai, The House of Scindias: A Saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue, is published by Roli Books and is available online.]
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