Kamal Nath: A career that began with a toppling act 40 years ago

NEW DELHI: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, whose government was toppled by BJP-Jyotiraditya Scindia combine on Friday, ironically rose in politics after participating in a mega toppling operation in Delhi more than 40 years ago.
Nath, the ‘Doon school buddy’ of Sanjay Gandhi, joined the Youth Congress in the 1970s and moved into the ‘big league’ after he was a key participant in a Sanjay Gandhi-led (and Indira Gandhi-backed) secret toppling operation against the seemingly entrenched Janata Party government. The team skilfully tapped on the disgruntlement of Raj Narain to trigger a larger rift in Janata Party.

Nath drove Sanjay and Raj Narain around secluded parts of Central Delhi, mostly near the Ridge, to discreetly plot against the Desai government without risking government snooping. Old timers recollect that Nath also accompanied Sanjay to the Pusa Road residence of then Congress sympathizer, industrialist Kapil Mohan of Mohan Meakins, where they held more secret meetings with Narain and others. Their secret missions led to rebellion in the Janata Party which soon became war that wrecked the Desai government, resulting in Congress propping up a government led by the breakaway Charan Singh faction, withdrawing support later and midterm polls that saw the return of Indira Gandhi to power.

Nath was rewarded for his friendship and collaborations with the Chhindwara seat in the 1980 LS polls. It was one of the only two LS seats the Congress won (Nagaur in Rajasthan being the other) in the Hindi belt in 1977. For Nath, Indira dropped sitting MP Gargi Shankar Mishra, who had survived the Janata wave. Since then, the Kanpur-born Nath made Chhindwara his home, won nine LS polls and lost one, after forcing a bypoll. One photograph that has always adorned Nath’s office wall has been of “my friend Sanjay,” even after he became an entrenched player in subsequent Congress regimes and the party establishment, besides becoming a successful businessman, the original vocation of his family.

Yet, the post of CM eluded Nath for almost 40 years. He had slips between that cup and the lip in 1980, ’85 and ’89 before finally wresting it for 15 months till Friday. The fact then party president Rahul Gandhi sat over an year on the peace formula — of making Nath PCC chief and Scindia-Digvijaya Singh campaign and coordination in-charge —meant getting just about six months for preparing the battered state Congress for the assembly polls in 2018, resulting in a marginal win that made running of his government dependent on outside support, even while facing nonstop ambushing bids that exhausted administrative focus.

Though Nath and Digvijaya Singh managed the intricate personality and turf clashes within the MP Congress, Scindia’s defeat in the LS poll made him desperate and internal issues turned worse. Yet, many now ask how the seasoned Nath-Singh team failed to forestall the defection of Scindia and his MLAs. “If Vijayaraje Scindiaji could not stop her son Madhavrao Scindiaji from joining Congress from the Jan Sangh in 1980, when he became politically desperate, how could have they stopped an equally desperate Jyotiradityaji from defecting,” asked a senior AICC functionary, who added that loss of MP was a major setback for the Congress.

Madhya Pradesh has once again turned saffron, yet, as the state is set for by-elections to 25 assembly seats and given the delicate numbers in the state assembly, political marathoners Nath and Singh are bound to plot for a bounce-back. Trust the BJP brass to be on the guard 24X7.