The belated effort by the Congress high command to end the bitter fight between Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his bête noire Sachin Pilot can be seen in the light of the coming Assembly poll in the State. On Monday, the central party leaders met both Gehlot and Pilot separately and later had a meeting with the two sitting together. Though no details were made available it was claimed that a compromise had been reached and the two would fight the coming poll “unitedly”. Led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, both Gehlot and Pilot met with senior party leaders, including AICC in-charge of Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Neither Pilot nor Gehlot let out a word about the so-called compromise the two had reached to end their bitter fight.
Shorn of pretence, the fight between Gehlot and Pilot is over the chief ministerial gaddi. Gehlot is firmly ensconced on it; Pilot desperately wants to eject him so that he can occupy it. That is that. How the high command can or will bring about a rapprochement when Gehlot shows no sign of vacating the chief minister’s post is not known. And if Pilot was to now agree to again become the Rajasthan Congress chief, as is being speculated, with the promise that in case the party retained power in the coming Assembly poll he would get to occupy the chief ministerial gaddi, it is unlikely that Gehlot would easily make way for his bête noire to realise his ambition.
It is notable that before the Gandhis zeroed in on Kharge as a proxy party head they had selected Gehlot for being the notional head of the Congress so that Pilot could take over as chief minister, but the crafty Gehlot instigated a rebellion by the party MLAs who would not have anyone but him as chief minister. Such an act of defiance would have normally earned Gehlot stern punishment from the party bosses. However, realising that any disciplinary action against Gehlot could jeopardise the party government in the State, the Gandhis quietly swallowed the insult. A surprisingly good win in Karnataka seems to have lifted the morale of the leadership, allowing the Gandhis yet again to act as the final arbiters in the party. But their hold may still be tentative. Therefore, any compromise between Gehlot and Pilot which leaves both dissatisfied may not hold for long.
Gehlot’s grip on the party rank and file in Rajasthan continues to be strong. He cannot be written off by the Congress high command. Therefore, accommodating Pilot who only a couple of weeks ago was organising barely concealed anti-Gehlot padyatras poses a ticklish problem. Any patchwork solution with an eye on the coming Assembly poll is unlikely to work. At every stage, including at the time of distribution of party tickets, these differences would come to the fore. The only workable solution is to get one of them a meaty role in the party organisation outside Rajasthan.
Dhoni does it again
Whether or not it was M S Dhoni’s last IPL — at 41 he isn’t getting any younger — it was a fitting tribute to his leadership, his calm and cool captaincy and his unruffled manner in the worst of situations on or off the field. For someone from the rural confines of Jharkhand to possess sterling qualities of leadership in abundance is proof that often leaders are born, not bred in expensive management schools. (Or thrust on the country by doting parents.) Thanks to the intense competition the country stayed glued to the TV sets or cell phones, making it worthwhile for the broadcasters and the streaming services who had shelled out a king’s ransom to buy the rights to the latest edition of the world’s richest cricket competition. And thanks to the IPL the country has discovered such a large pool of talent that our supremacy in the sport once dominated by members of the Anglosphere is now unchallenged. Such is the lure of big bucks that most cricketing nations tailor their annual calendars to accommodate the lucrative IPL. To watch the former Australian or English greats doing duty for various IPL teams as managers, coaches, etc underlines the shift of the pendulum in the cricketing world. India now calls the shots in the International Cricket Council while the pull of the sport in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa is weakening.
