All in the Family

Even his harshest critics agree that Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh is among the most experienced and shrewdest — some say wiliest — leaders of the country. It is all the more puzzling, therefore, that in the last few weeks, through contradictory statements, he should have painted himself into a corner, to put it no more strongly than that. What comes to mind is artful H.N. Bahuguna’s confession, after his surprise dismissal as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in 1976: “Only champion swimmers die due to drowning.”

The cascade of Singh’s carefully planned statements, uttered in his usual gentle tone, and the reactions he evoked have been reported and discussed at too great a length to need recounting here. But a few broad points must be made.

First, he evidently miscalculated the consequences of his plea for “projecting” Rahul Gandhi as prime minister. Having spent his earlier stint in the same ministry in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government, he had left no stone unturned to topple and replace the then prime minister. All his efforts had failed, driving him and his cohorts to split the party. During the last four years, he has successfully thwarted all proposals for reforming higher education, emanating from the prime minister-appointed Knowledge Commission and even from the PMO. His strident propagation of the cause of the OBCs — opportunistically supported by all political parties — has undoubtedly helped him achieve his purpose. Left to himself he would have liked to seek immediate “revision” of the Supreme Court’s verdict excluding the “creamy layer” from the list of beneficiaries of OBC reservations. But he was deterred by the lack of support in the council of ministers.

It is logical to assume, therefore, that the HRD minister thought that by unfurling the “Rahul as PM” banner he could kill two birds with one stone: undermine the position of Manmohan Singh, and earn the goodwill of not only the First Family but also all those in the Congress rooting for its young general secretary. It is a safe bet that had Arjun Singh had the slightest inkling that Congress President Sonia Gandhi would deplore the campaign on behalf of her son (which she did, not directly but through an AICC spokesperson, Jayanthi Natarajan), he would never have made his initial mistake.

Second, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the course of events has unhinged the otherwise stolid minister. There can be no other explanation of the fact that within 24 hours of his blustering criticism of the lack of inner-party democracy in the Congress and of its leadership’s assessment of loyalty in a “limited perspective”, he made a declaration of abject surrender and swore undying loyalty to the Gandhi family.

... contd.

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