NEWSLINKS
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTION 99
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Out of the loop

Yes, I've been in a quandary: the thought of getting back to politics repulses me. I switch on DD News and promptly switch to MTV; I pick up the paper and don't open it; I've no clue about Sri Lanka or Sonia Gandhi or Rabadi Devi or whatever. Even today, I finally forced myself to write after the call about the demise of Rajesh Pilot... I liked him. And so I owe him an obituary. I liked him since the day I saw a photograph of the dashing young Pilot in his Indian Air Force wings. In him, the Congress had a commodity non-existent in all of its front-ranking members - provable patriotism. No one could deny that this was a man who had faced a possible death for his country.

I liked him for being the perpetual "trouble-maker" within the Congress - one who avoided crucial meetings resolving on controversial issues simply by being "out of Delhi." No matter what the khaadi-topi chamchas said, we all knew that none of those "self-sacrificing" decisions, such as pulling down duly elected governments, had the "unanimous approval" of the Congress Working Committee members. Whether the architects of those India-improving-and-enriching schemes were Chacha Kesri or the Shroud, Rajesh Pilot pointedly kept away. By this avoidance, he made his position clear to the party's power-centres and to us simple folks, and also indicated that he had no value for the rewards that could have come his way had he joined the lumpen bandwagon. A Ghulam Nabi Azad or a Madhav Scindia he was not.

I liked him for being politically incorrect enough to admit, as the Minister of State for Home Affairs at the time of the RSS-office blast in Tamil Nadu, that large quantities of Islamic RDX were finding their way into the state. Whoa... even the BJP types of today will think twice before making such a claim!

I liked him for supporting Purno Sangma's contention, voiced after the resolution to make Sonia the prime-ministerial candidate, that her dual citizenship was a serious matter (which prompted the resignation "left in a huff" drama, which in turn jolted awake a large chunk of thitherto somnolent voters). Rajesh Pilot unequivocally indicated that he was opposed to the expulsion of M/s Sharad Pawar, Sangma and Tariq Anwar from the party, and he stood apart from the rest of his sycophantic and thuggish colleagues when they hurled accusations and abuse at the unholy trinity. Yes, I liked him for being blacklisted as one who had collaborated with the "enemy" - to me, it was a personal tragedy that Rajesh Pilot did not break away: An NCP with this Gujjar leader could have been a formidable proposition.

I always watched him closely on television. If you notice, in all of my reporting of pre- and post-election debates, I never did have an unkind word for Rajesh Pilot. The man spoke his mind and held his ground - without ever demeaning his challengers or their ideologies. No one knows better than I how difficult that is... He was so civilised a human being that even in the midst of a live, heated debate, he never lost that balance and lashed out. Hell, I've seen even Jairam ("Congress winning only 113 to 115 seats all over India cannot be taken as a referendum on Mrs Gandhi's abilities") Ramesh lose his carefully cultivated cool and reveal his inner self-serving self. Rajesh Pilot was a man with whom his adversaries reasoned, not clashed.

As amiable and gracious as Rajesh Pilot was, he was not devoid of biting wit. I remember his Pramod Mahajan-trained dart during the 12-hour gore-fest which posed as the Parliamentary debate on the pulling down of the 13-day Vajpayee government: "The BJP has such fine orators; they have got here only by speaking". And yes, when I remember him, it is the man all stretched out on the table before him, laughing helplessly at Pramod's "The UF-Congress talks didn't make a headway since they couldn't cross the line of control at Farooq Abdullah's home; and at Sharad Pawar's house, they couldn't not sit on the fence." More than Pramod's sarcasm, it was Pilot's uninhibited response that had brought a smile to my face.

There's no doubt that he was needlessly and excessively loyal to the Congress party. However, his concern for the working of democracy, which can never function without transparency and accountability, made him take a stand against all the unwritten but established traditions of the one-family-serving institution. I liked him for categorically stating on television, "All of us are responsible for the party's defeat. Soniaji is responsible... Election will be through consensus, but if a contest is required, it will take place": I liked him for being the first (and only?) Congresswallah who dared to pin the tail...

Time and again though he came back from the brink of posing a challenge to a corrupt and immoral authority, Rajesh Pilot was once again set to mount an attack on his party's presidency. When questioned, he had affirmed, "When the party's leadership needed to be challenged, I did that." He had informed the Shroud about his intentions just a few days before his fatal accident near Jaipur. The Pioneer informs us that "He had urged her to step down from the presidentship of the Congress and assured her that she and her family would thereafter continue to be treated with respect and consideration." Conspiracy-theory freak that I am, I would welcome an investigation into the accident that killed him...

I met Rajesh Pilot only once, in London, by accident. He was in full tennis gear and waiting for a taxi in front of the St James's Court Hotel. I waited behind him. When a cab arrived, he turned around and asked if he could give me, a total stranger but a fellow Indian, a lift. I accepted. He didn't know I was a writer and answered my awkward questions freely - without ever diverting the blame onto his colleagues or, more significantly, pretending that mistakes had not been and weren't being made. Actually, I was shocked to find him entirely acceptable. When I told him that I was a BJP sympathiser, he had laughed and said, " Aap mujh se chhoti hain isliye main aap ko ek salah doonga. Kabhi bhi, chaahe koi bhi party ho, aap issues ko dekh ke hi nischay kijeeye. Aap candidate ko dekh ke vote deejiye. Ideologies disappear when they are given the seat of power. When the BJP comes, you let me know if they do what you think they will do." How true...

Today I realise, he was the only Congresswallah of these times that I found entirely acceptable. I'm sure that certain Hindutvawadi quarters feel the same way, too. Rajesh Pilot was always a man of unrealized potential and it's a pity that just when things seemed to be moving ahead, he suddenly went out of the loop. Is there anybody else in the Congress who is perceived, as Rajesh Pilot unanimously was, as a courageous and principled politician? Does anybody have the mass base he had? There is great dissension within the Congress vis-à-vis its president, but does any of its leading lights have the jigar and the background to lead the rebels and rejuvenate the dying party? The very first requirement of a democracy is a strong and honourable opposition... after Rajesh Pilot's death, the Congress is totally bereft of the latter quality, too. Whither BJP? Can it be trusted to maintain decorum in the face of a non-opposition? Not! Therefore, Rajesh Pilot's is more of a catastrophic loss to Indian politics. Cry, India, cry.

Varsha Bhosle