Madhya Pradesh Congress:
A house in ruins

The Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Jamuna Devi, and Subhash Yadav, head of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, are constantly at loggerheads. And there is the little fact that Yadav faces a corruption inquiry report submitted against him.

By N D Sharma

Jyotiraditya Scindia, considered the architect of the Congress victory in the Shivpuri Assembly by-election, gave credit for the victory to the “unity” among Congressmen and “the blessings” of Digvijay Singh. Singh had, ironically, gone abroad during the election campaign and had scrupulously avoided being seen around the constituency even weeks after the result was out. Some local party leaders, known for their fierce loyalty to him, had also fled the constituency during the crucial period.

The victory was celebrated with fireworks and mithai at Shivpuri and the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office in the state capital, causing heartburn in the Arjun Singh camp. The grouse of Arjun Singh’s supporters was that the PCC held no such celebration when the Congress candidate earlier won the Sidhi Lok Sabha by-election, “mainly through the efforts of Ajay Singh” (Arjun Singh’s son).

The Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Jamuna Devi, and Subhash Yadav, head of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC), are constantly at loggerheads. This, in a nutshell, explains the present state of the MPCC. Yadav is the most lacklustre of the state Congress leaders. Yet, he has been left to run the “party” virtually on his own as no other office-bearer has been appointed. Nor has the PCC been constituted, but Yadav has appointed about 15 party spokespersons, none of whom knows what he is supposed to do.

The existence of this shadowy tribe of PCC spokespersons came to public attention some time ago in a manner that did little credit to the party. On Akshaya Tritiya day, the Shivraj Singh Chauhan government had organised mass marriages of poor girls (and boys) across the state. Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Gopal Bhargava presided over such a function in his constituency in Sagar district. Those assembled at the function were entertained with “raee” dance.

Some newspapers reported that the dance was lewd, and that inebriated members of the audience passed boorish remarks in the presence of the minister. A PCC spokesperson issued a statement asking for Bhargava’s resignation. The following day, another PCC spokesperson issued a reactive statement defending Bhargava strongly and claiming that the “raee” dance was part of the cultural heritage of Bundelkhand, and that it was traditionally organised on auspicious occasions, particularly during marriage ceremonies.

The second PCC spokesperson has nothing to do with Bundelkhand. He hasn’t been known for his love of culture either. He has been chairperson of a large cooperative store for years, and it is alleged that he had appropriated crores. Bhargava, as cooperatives minister, ordered an inquiry. The inquiry report was said to be lying on Bhargava’s table, waiting for his orders to launch a prosecution. Bhargava has in his wherewithal to send many state Congress leaders, who had had been controlling various cooperative institutions, into political oblivion, if not to jail.

Digvijay Singh had also used this ‘weapon’ to tame Subhash Yadav, reported to be the biggest cooperatives funds defaulter in the state. An Arjun Singh protégé, Yadav was aspiring to become chief minister in 1993 but was ditched by his mentor, who adroitly permitted his supporters to rally round Digvijay Singh, a fellow Thakur. A bitter Yadav was reluctantly mollified with the post of deputy chief minister. However, he could not reconcile himself to Digvijay Singh’s leadership and continued being a thorn in his side.

Yadav had been chairperson of the Apex Bank. He was removed from that post only after Bhargava became cooperatives minister. A few complaints against Yadav would go to the Lokayukta, who would, after completing investigations, seek the chief minister’s comments before making the final recommendation. Digvijay Singh would then cause the issue to be raised in the Assembly through Leader of the Opposition Vikram Verma, and the entire Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposition would set after Yadav. (Digvijay Singh and Vikram Verma had the same symbiotic relationship as Arjun Singh and Sunderlal Patwa —looking after each other’s personal interests.) The matter between the chief minister and the deputy chief minister would thus be ‘resolved’.

Bhargava had his early political grooming in the Youth Congress. Soon after becoming cooperatives minister, he ordered inquiries into the workings of the cooperative leaders of the Congress. Upon receiving the initial reports, he began announcing with confidence that most of these leaders would not be able to avoid jail sentences. He had the full backing of the then chief minister, Uma Bharati, who saw in this methodology the distinct advantage of crippling the funding conduits of the Congress.

The case against a prominent Congress leader, a staunch Arjun Singh loyalist, had almost reached culmination when Arjun Singh was said to have intervened through Patwa. Uma Bharati had,
meanwhile, been replaced by Babulal Gaur as chief minister. Gaur is, for all practical purposes, a Congressman in the BJP. Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who succeeded Gaur, has little understanding of events in his own government.

It is now being said that inquiry reports into the (mis-)deeds of several Congress cooperative leaders, Subhash Yadav included, are with Bhargava. Will he honestly fulfil his commitment to pack the guilty off to jail? Or will he use these reports only to tromp these leaders into submission? Irrespective of Bhargava’s intentions, the future of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh doesn’t seem to be bright.