Sachin Pilot’s gamble

THE great Indian misfortune is our political class. The raging pandemic or the neighbour’s incursion on the northern borders does not deter politicos from toppling the government even in a border state. The spectacle in Jaipur could not have been timed worse. For no reason, other than naked ambition, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president, Sachin Pilot, made a political gamble on Sunday claiming the support of 30 MLAs and thereby insisting that his own government was in a minority. Both the claims were proved wrong on Monday by nearly 100 MLAs — the halfway mark in the House of 200 legislators — at the Legislature Party meeting held at Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s residence.

Sachin Pilot, at 26, was the youngest member of the Lok Sabha in 2004. In 2009, he was a Union minister and in 2014, he became the president of the party’s state unit, despite a massive defeat from the Ajmer constituency — all because of his dynastic credentials as Rajesh Pilot’s son and political heir. To his credit, Sachin did do a good job while heading the party in Opposition from 2014 till 2018, when the Congress won the Assembly polls. His friends in the Delhi media amplified his hard work manifold. Yet, he stooped to display an ugly haste, getting his supporters to block roads, demanding to be made Chief Minister.

The Sonia-Rahul leadership has only itself to blame for the present predicament as it had in 2018 succumbed to blackmail and given the dual charge of the party organisation and Deputy CM’s post to the same young man in a tearing hurry. The Special Operations Group cops’ notice to Sachin in the MLA-poaching scandal was probably the proverbial last straw for the CM and the Deputy. After all, Sachin is being accused of plotting with the BJP to bring the government down. The BJP, which wants Operation Madhya Pradesh repeated, has not played its cards yet; though the Central government has coincidentally sent Income Tax sleuths to search Gehlot’s close aides. It is business as usual for our politicians.