The man is dead but his legacy lives on. Though few are willing to don his mantle openly. Tributes from fellow Congressmen were worded cautiously, subtly avoiding comment on his ability to stand up and speak out against the party high command. And so, even after his death in a road accident at Dausa, Rajasthan, on June 11, Pilot remains the lone symbol of dissent.
The predicament of associating themselves with Pilot's politics has become worse now for people like CWC member Jitendra Prasada, who are seen to be throwing a challenge to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Any reference to Pilot now would be interpreted as an attempt to fill up the void left by Pilot's demise. Even though Prasada has decided to go ahead with the series of public meetings which began last month in UP, Pilot's absence will be a setback to this effort. For, it was he who openly spoke of the poor state of the Congress at public meetings in Jhansi and Lucknow and called upon Congress workers to "rejuvenate" the party. Clearly, the meetings were danger signals for UPCC chief Salman Khursheed, but more than that they were seen as a direct threat to Sonia's authority.
While those not known to have any special liking for Pilot are more forthcoming in their "praise" for the departed leader, the dissidents seem more cautious when assessing Pilot's brand of politics. "It is not important what is being said, the important thing is who is saying it," a senior Congress leader said. But senior CWC member Balram Jakhar dismisses any suggestion that dissent is equated with revolt. Says he: "What is dissent? If one cannot speak in the party, what is the meaning of democracy? Yeh kya dastoor-e-zabanbandi hai teri mehfil mein, yahan to baat karne ko tarasti hai zaban meri (Why this tradition of silence in the gathering? My tongue longs to find utterance)."
Clearly, many regarded Pilot as a straightforward and upright politician who never let considerations of career and post drown his voice of conscience. Unfortunately, he could never garner enough support - even from his admirers - to defeat his rivals. At one point he became a lone fighter within the party who was well respected for his fighting spirit but not for his leadership qualities. Starting his political career as a young MP in 1980, he became state minister in 1985 in Rajiv Gandhi's council of ministers. Soon after becoming state transport minister in 1986, Pilot demonstrated his hands-on approach of dealing with problems. When complaints of misbehaviour by dtc started pouring in, Pilot decided to get down to business. He slipped into a pair of jeans and got on to a dtc bus in Delhi. No one recognised him and errant conductors were soon brought to book.
In the later years of his career Pilot showed this ability with even more rigour in his dealings with powerful people like Chandraswami. The globe-trotting swami was opposed to the candidature of Pilot's wife Rama for the Dausa assembly seat. He left no stone unturned to ensure her defeat. Pilot decided to take him on and was only looking for an opportune moment. That opportunity arrived when underworld don Babloo Srivastava spilled the beans in November 1995 about Chandraswami's links with Dawood Ibrahim. Pilot, in his capacity as internal security minister, ordered a thorough inquiry. It was on his orders that a dithering cbi had to arrest and put Chandraswami in Tihar jail where he remained for nearly six months. It didn't bother him that his foe was the best friend of the then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
Rao reportedly tried to dissuade Pilot from launching a campaign against Chandraswami but he preferred to lose his status as internal security minister than compromise on his principles. He was shifted to the ministry of environment. The home minister S.B Chavan could only heave a sigh of relief. It was no secret that Pilot never got along with Chavan in the home ministry. Pilot never made any bones about it.
Ambitious and perpetual rebel that he was, Pilot had his differences even with Rao. After Rao's downfall in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, it didn't take Pilot long to train his guns against the new leadership. Interestingly, despite all this, he never acquired the image of a power-hungry politician. All his political adventures were conducted within the framework of party discipline and democratic norms. "Unlike others Rajesh never left the party and always spoke on principles. Whether he fought elections for the post of party president or expressed his ambition of becoming prime minister of the country - he always functioned within his rights. "It was unfortunate if anybody took it as a threat to their existence," says a senior CWC member.
Senior Congress leaders recall that when Pilot became contender for the post of party president and decided to fight the election against Sitaram Kesri, he quoted the examples of Subhash Chandra Bose and Mahavir Tyagi who on many occasions had defied the high command to exercise their democratic right of fighting organisational polls. Although he lost by a huge margin it did not shake his faith in himself. Nor did he leave the party like Sharad Pawar and P.A. Sangma. Sonia always saw him as a potential threat and with organisational elections nearing again, Pilot's moves were being watched carefully by 10, Janpath.
Sonia's detractors in the party, however, see it as a sign of her weakness. "Organisational elections are round the corner. Assembly elections in UP can be declared within one year. The Congress is very weak. In this situation everyone should plunge into action to build up a momentum. If she (Sonia) perceives it as a threat, then she's wrong," says a Congress leader. It was more or less decided that Pilot would make his presence felt during the organisational elections of the Congress. With him not around, it is now unlikely that anyone will challenge Sonia the way Pilot was expected to.
Known for his 'humble' background - he sold milk as a young boy in his Baidpur village in Ghaziabad - Pilot has left a void in the Congress. It was sad, says a senior Congress leader, that he lacked support within the party which was why he could never take his campaigns to their logical conclusion. What, however, gave him the edge over others was his massive following among backward farmers in western UP and Rajasthan. Congressmen say Pilot had a mass base greater than his contemporaries like Digvijay Singh and Madhavrao Scindia. Their ambitions are no secret but unlike Pilot they are not known to take on the Congress president directly.
Perhaps the most creditable thing about Pilot was his ability to fight from within. Even in defeat he could never be sidelined. When stalwarts like Rao and N.D. Tiwari were reduced to almost non-entities; when leaders like Sharad Pawar and Sangma couldn't strike a balance between their ambitions and party loyalty, Pilot always managed to remain a relevant force. "He wasn't an expert on any matter but people confided in him," says a Congressman. As minister of internal security he was involved in negotiations with secessionist groups in Kashmir and the northeast but even when he not in government, the then premier H.D. Deve Gowda sent him to Thailand to hold talks with northeast rebel leaders.
The next time Jitendra Prasada and other dissidents address meetings in Moradabad, Barabanki and Varanasi, they'll have to underline issues dear to Pilot's heart - those of internal democracy and rejuvenation of the party. "What Rajesh Pilot could not achieve during his lifetime, he has achieved after his death. Now hundreds of thousands of people will come forward to endorse issues raised by him," a senior Congress leader tells Outlook. The challenger is gone. His challenge remains.
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