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No decision yet on CM candidate for Rajasthan, says Ashok Gehlot

Ashok Gehlot has been entrusted with coordinating the alliance between the Congress and the SP in UP

Ashok Gehlot, Congress leader and two-time chief minister of Rajasthan
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Ashok Gehlot, Congress leader and two-time chief minister of Rajasthan
Archis Mohan New Delhi
Last Updated : Feb 25 2017 | 9:33 PM IST
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Senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot has been entrusted with coordinating the alliance between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh. Currently stationed in Lucknow, the 65-year-old leader, who was chief minister of Rajasthan from 1998 to 2003 and 2008 to 2013, tells Archis Mohan that the young leadership in the party would get its place in the sun, until then it should bide its time.

Edited excerpts

What is your assessment of the UP Assembly polls? How effectively has the SP ensured the transfer of its votes to Congress candidates?

The SP-Congress alliance is increasing its tally in each phase. As for the transfer of votes, this alliance has come about in special circumstances; it has turned into a blessing in disguise. (UP Chief Minister) Akhilesh Yadav has a good image. What has burnished his image further is the manner in which he has emerged from the crisis in his party. The public at large believes that Yadav is determined to take the state on a path to progress. Both (Congress Vice-president) Rahul Gandhi and Yadav are young and have the support of the youth. The rank and file of the SP is working with Congress workers with enthusiasm.

Unlike the Grand Alliance in the Bihar Assembly polls in 2015, there are chinks here. Is it because the SP-Congress alliance was sewn up in a hurry?

I won’t say it was sewn up in jaldbaazi (hurry). But yes, it took time to firm up the alliance. It would have been better if it was done earlier.

Isn’t the friction between the senior leadership and juniors affecting the Congress? 

The top leadership (of the party) has always striven to strike a balance between the seniors and juniors. At that time (in the 1970s and 80s) we comprised the junior leadership. All the top Congress leaders today were in its students’ wing or in the Youth Congress — Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Digvijaya Singh, Ahmed Patel and myself.

There is talk that Rahul Gandhi will ask the  senior leaders to sit at home; all of them were then in the Youth Congress. It has taken all of us 30-35 years to reach wherever we have. Today’s juniors will gradually get their opportunities and become seniors with time. Rahul Gandhi has needlessly been trapped in this senior-junior quandary.

Rahul Gandhi wants new leaders to come up, just as Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have supported youth leaders. But more than that, the media has created this perception of struggle between the seniors and juniors. Obviously, there are lobbies of senior and junior leaderships; juniors want to get ahead and they play the issue in such a manner that they can do so. Neither is this something new — we did it, too — nor should anybody object to it. I would say they should push their case more. But this has got stuck to Rahul Gandhi since he was also young. 

But in the context of Rajasthan…

I am talking in the context of the entire country.

The Assembly elections in Rajasthan are a year away.

The Congress is strong in Rajasthan. Vasundhara Raje’s rule is exemplified by bad governance. People are angry because she got a huge majority. Neither have there been debilitating factors like drought. But she has stopped meeting the people. Little development work has taken place. She is facing massive anti-incumbency.

But there is a leadership struggle within the Congress in Rajasthan.

In the Congress, we have a system where a Pradesh Congress Committee chief is appointed by the central leadership and party legislators elect the Congress Legislative Party. Needless misperception is being created about who could be the next chief minister of Rajasthan from the Congress. We are a disciplined party. Post elections, the high command will assess the mood of the public, and of party legislators, to announce a chief minister. It happens smoothly. Discussing it at this juncture is meaningless.

There were reports that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would campaign extensively during the UP Assembly polls.

That was all the media’s imagination. To my knowledge, Priyankaji never said that Dimple Yadav and she would be campaigning together.

Do you think the Opposition failed to highlight the failures of demonetisation?

The Narendra Modi government’s note ban decision is a huge failure. All the black money has become white. The government is playing to the gallery by getting the Income Tax Department and its other machinery to raid people. It has also stopped talking about the black money stashed abroad.

The bigger question is how to bring about systemic changes to curb the use of black money, particularly in political funding. The prime minister has no moral authority to speak on black money and corruption until his government takes effective steps.

I had asked Modi whether his government came to power with the help of black money or white money. For any party that forms a government — whether at the Centre or in the states — the money comes through political funding. The nature of political funding needs to be discussed and more transparency is needed.

But Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposed electoral bonds in the Budget.

That is a big zero. Nothing will come out of it. Jaitley knows it himself. This government has made people stand in queues outside banks and ATMs and misled them by proposing such useless proposals on political funding. I would ask Jaitley to bring about effective laws to make the process of political funding more transparent. We will support him.

The PM recently said he has the janmapatri (horoscope) of Congress leaders.

Modi wants to govern by unleashing political vendetta. He is misusing government machinery. He wants to be the messiah of the poor and has created a rich-poor divide. Indira Gandhi had also done work for the poor. Unlike Modi, who is indulging in jumlebaazi (rhetoric) or mouthing slogans, Indira Gandhi had abolished privy purses and nationalised banks. What Modi did was note ban. Vilifying industrialists, entrepreneurs and business people — people who create wealth and jobs in society — is not healthy.

The PM is creating an environment of fear in the country. The business and entrepreneurial class is scared. Once such an atmosphere gets created, government machinery, whether civil or police, gets the licence to harass people. It is the start of an inspector raj. The Income Tax Department will harass people. It has already happened. Lakhs of people have been sent income tax notices and there is corruption. People are trying to persuade tax department officials to not send them notices.

It was common for people to say in 2014 that Modi was here to stay for 10 years, but now there is a big question mark over whether he would be re-elected in 2019.

Take the PM’s call of “Congress-mukt Bharat”, an India free of the Congress. It betrays his fascist mindset. Such thinking shouldn’t even cross his mind in a democracy. The PM should realise that its his credibility that gets dented when he chooses to ignore the contributions of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, or when he makes unkind statements about his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, on the floor of the Rajya Sabha.

The PM says some people might burn him alive or kill him. Such language doesn’t behove a prime ministerial chair. But it also betrays his nervousness that he might lose the 2019 elections.
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First Published: Feb 25 2017 | 9:33 PM IST

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