The road to nowhere, Digvijay Singh-style

Unlikeable as Digvijay Singh is, he is a classic but atypical victim of the Congress party’s dynastic politics.

He will be used and abused to further the dynastic interests of the Congress party leadership. But when it comes to getting plum cabinet posts in the Centre, he will be passed over for more acceptable faces like that of P Chidambaram who has both a Harvard degree and powerful foreign backers.

In case the 2014 prime-ministership opens up for a non-Gandhi, Digvijay Singh won’t be the one to get it.

Deep down, Digvijay Singh knows this. Perhaps he confronted this moment of truth at the funeral of his late mentor, Arjun Singh. Arjun Singh considered Digvijay (and Ajit Jogi, who shifted his politics to Chhattisgarh) as something of a backstabber but probably forgave him in the last months of his political isolation. Amidst making funeral arrangements for Arjun Singh, where Digvijay was seen by his close aides and friends as being very much in charge, the former two-time Madhya Pradesh chief minister let fly a statement that was unusually imprudent for him and calculated to provoke shockwaves in the party.

Anna Hazare has come to dominate all Indian politics in which Digvijay Singh’s statement, signifying mini-revolt or free thought, was forgotten. And certainly, most people know the role Digvijay played in trying to destroy Anna Hazare and his campaign for a Jan Lokpal bill. But at Arjun Singh’s funeral, Digvijay Singh had some interesting things to say. He said, somewhat archly, that there was nothing to the statements that he was specially or exceptionally close to Rahul Gandhi who, it has been widely advertised, Digvijay tutors on politics. Digvijay went on then to express strong backing for prime minister Manmohan Singh, whose pro-Americanism and economic policies he has castigated in private and added he had no differences with Chidambaram. Incidentally, Chidambaram and Digvijay had indulged in a public row over the Centre’s anti-Maoist policies and the home minister’s use of the term “saffron terror”.

His closest aides cannot say why Digvijay sought publicly to distance from Rahul Gandhi (unheard of in Congress circles) or glad-hand Chidambaram or Manmohan Singh, whom he generally dislikes. Perhaps it had something to do with the fate of political abandonment suffered by his mentor, Arjun Singh, who was ironically removed from the Congress working committee on the day of his death. Maybe this was the end he foresaw for himself despite slogging for the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

But it was a most temporary dawning of light. Digvijay has plans to contest elections in 2013, ending his ten-year electoral self-exile and his Madhya Pradesh advisers have cautioned him not to burn his boats with the state, allured by national politics. That was Arjun Singh’s blunder and they don’t want Digvijay to repeat it. It will take Digvijay Singh a minimum of two years to pose any credible challenge to the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and he knows he is not getting younger.

But Anna Hazare happened and Digvijay Singh was swept away in hatred and loathing for what the old Gandhian represents, although he extols Anna and his rural-development schemes in public. Probably, Digvijay Singh fell into the reflexive trap of doing the Congress leadership’s dirty job. Worse, from the public opinion point of view, Digvijay Singh took the assistance of Amar Singh to attack Anna Hazare and his citizen activists. To Digvijay Singh’s ultimate chagrin, Sonia Gandhi grudgingly gave in to Anna Hazare’s demand to restrain him, and precisely those government big shots he loathes, for walking away with the prizes cleverly switched in time to the side of the doughty Maharashtra campaigner.

Without losing a day, Digvijay is back to his statement-on-the-hour routine, picking on favourite subjects like the RSS.

“If I do not make controversial statements, I will sink out of sight,” Digvijay Singh has told his friends. Creating controversies and doing negative politics has been the forte of Amar Singh (Digvijay’s new foe-turned-ally), LK Advani and, once upon a time, Arjun Singh. Following them gets you nowhere, which is where Digvijay Singh is headed. Although many may disagree, Digvijay is a different sort of victim of dynastic politics.