Jyotiraditya Scindia: From toast of Congress to breadcrumb of BJP

We may be staring at a de-ideologised generation of politicians in whose hands neither the Constitution nor the liberal society we seek is safe

Jyotiraditya Scindia’s move to jump ship and bring down the government of his parent party in Madhya Pradesh, returns us to the recurrent question of political opportunism in Indian politics. Where indeed do Scindia’s objectives fit in the wide spectrum of political strategies that can be called opportunist?

Kanshi Ram, the founder of Bahujan Samaj Party, unabashedly advocated political opportunism as a means of capturing political power on behalf of marginalised Dalits. He did not seek wealth or power for himself. His protégé Mayawati is also schooled in the same brand of realpolitik although the distinction between her personal and political fortune is not so clear.

The opportunism of regional parties – fairly routine in Jammu and Kashmir or in the South Indian states -- is also rationalised in terms of a larger good; the channeling of central funds for the development of their states. In the north-eastern states, parties and legislators move en masse to whichever party can assure them constant access to power and pelf.

Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal fight accusations of ideological flexibility by claiming that their politics of delivering governance to the poorest is “non-ideological”. Yet Nitish Kumar has become a byword for a politician who cannot be trusted. So has Arvind Kejriwal. But nobody can say that they have accumulated personal riches.

Kejriwal ensured the ‘de-ideologisation’ of the Aam Adami Party immediately after its formation by throwing out intellectuals like Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan and Anand Kumar who could have helped develop its ideological muscle. Hiding behind an essentially municipal agenda he now virtually stands in the ideological shadow of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the run up to his third election he supported the withdrawal of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and distanced himself from the fears of the Muslim minority over imminent changes in India’s citizenship laws. He let targeted communal violence persist in Delhi for several days. The Delhi Legislative Assembly’s recent resolution against the National Population Register and National Register of Citizens cannot condone deliberate inaction during the pogroms.

Where do Jyotiraditya Scindia’s political motivations fall within the spectrum of political opportunists?

The ideological shift in his politics is not justified by any larger ethical premise or commitment to the well-being of the voters of Madhya Pradesh. Having lost an election and failing to outmanoeuvre political rivals in his erstwhile party, Scindia’s actions show a contempt for democratic processes.

Jyotiraditya Scindia | File photo

Unlike other political opportunists however, Jyotiraditya Scindia entered the political arena with the great advantage of wealth – both earned and inherited. He does not need public office to accumulate economic capital. But he needs access to power and the authority it confers to validate his sense of superiority by birth. His ancestry and upbringing perhaps cause him to believe that he is a ‘natural’ leader.

Why did he choose to join the BJP? Psychologists say that individuals derive their personal worth from deeply held values and that political ideology is a particularly strong marker of value dissimilarity. One wonders which values gave young Jyotiraditya Scindia his sense of worth and self-importance?

His father, Madhavrao Scindia, was several times done down by his political rivals. Arjun Singh, who resigned as Chief Minister over the Churhat lottery scandal prevented him from becoming Chief Minister of MP in 1989 and manouvered Motilal Vora into his place. Again in 1996, P V Narasimha Rao denied him Lok Sabha candidature over a mention in the “Jain Hawala Diaries”. This time too he did not cross over to the BJP and formed his own Madhya Pradesh Vikas Party. He returned to the Congress two years later when Rao had himself been marginalised by the party. The younger Scindia has, however, chosen to completely cut off his ideological moorings by joining the BJP.  

In the process he has given up the chance of emerging within his erstwhile party as a challenger to an authoritarian and populist leader like Narendra Modi. Where he could have been in time, the toast of the Congress, by choosing to sup with him, he will be at best, a breadcrumb on Prime Minister Modi’s table, or perhaps worse, a fragment of fafada on his Man Friday, Amit Shah’s plate.

Jyotiraditya Scindia’s political shift comes too late to bring him any significant advantages. The Congress may be a failing party but the party he has joined has not made a great success of the power entrusted to it. Despite the overwhelming parliamentary majorities gifted to him by the voters, Prime Minister Modi has failed to deliver both times. The economy has been laid waste, social cleavages have widened and individual rights trampled.

Scindia joins the BJP at a time when its leadership is no longer able to sweep easy electoral majorities for its increasingly illiberal agendas. Future elections will have to be more carefully staged and voters ‘managed’ to produce wins. This was evident in the sabre-rattling that won it the general election of May 2019. The openly communal mobilisation during the recent Delhi elections was electorally less successful but helped consolidate the constituency of the BJP. It is still before the courts to decide whether the violence in March is linked to the stirring of communal passions in the preceding election. How far will Scindia be willing to go as a new convert to this brand of politics?

In the end one may speculate whether Jyotiraditya Scindia ever really had deep ideological roots in the Congress. Was he simply there merely because of his father before him? Was he there only to protect the political capital he had inherited? If this is true, might it not also be true of the progeny of other successful politicians who find themselves in the Congress by merely an accident of birth? Are we then staring at a de-ideologised generation of politicians in whose hands neither the Constitution nor the liberal society we seek is safe? These questions could have very uncomfortable answers.

Twitter: @Bharatitis