After a month-long political drama in Rajasthan, the curtain has finally come down. Sachin Pilot and his loyalist MLAs have returned to Jaipur. A three-member AICC committee will take stock of Sachin’s grievances and Ashok Gehlot has accepted his responsibility of winning the dissidents back. In short, the battle for power seems to be inching closer towards the end.
But the question remains, who is on the victorious side?
Sachin Pilot had, from the very beginning, limited options. He overplayed his cards. As a result, he has lost his posts of Deputy CM and PCC President. All he is left with is an ‘assurance’ from the party’s high command. Unfortunately, wordy assurances have little credibility in politics.
Veteran Ashok Gehlot, on the other hand, played it safe. He successfully managed to save his face and his government. All the MLAs of Gehlot camp were kept corralled for a month and not even a single MLA could be poached, which is quite an achievement in a highly volatile horse-trading atmosphere. The truth is, Ashok Gehlot will continue to serve as the CM till 2023 and will therefore exercise complete control over the party matters. 4 out of the 18 MLAs from Pilot’s camp have already hoisted the white flag before him.
So, who seems to be in a better position?
It’s a herculean task to figure out who is on the victorious side in this political battle, but one thing is sure – democracy is on the losing side. The institutions of governance survived serious injuries, the saddest part being that the ‘civilians’ had to unnecessarily bear the brunt of a war uncalled for.
7 crore people of Rajasthan who were promised ‘sushaasan‘ (good governance) were actually made to see the opposite. Can the promised ‘sushaansan‘ be expected ahead? For ‘sushaasan‘ (good governance), it’s very important for the people in the government to be cohesive. Ashok Gehlot used highly pejorative words like ‘nakaara‘ and ‘nikamma‘ (worthless) for Pilot.
The latter has candidly accepted that these words shocked and pained him. Would it be easy for the duo to gel well even after this ugly name-calling? Cohesiveness seems a far cry in Rajasthan as of now. With acrimony still brewing in the state, loyalists of Gehlot have expressed strong displeasure at the coming back of dissident MLAs. Their demand is that the dissident MLAs should be denied positions of importance in the government as well as in the organisation. This clearly reeks of animosity. Amid this toxic atmosphere, will it be easy to smoothen the ruffled feathers? Will Rajasthan be able to experience ‘sushaasan‘?
At the end, I can just say, a government divided in itself, cannot stand for long.