In politics, they say, choose your friends and enemies carefully. The political history of India is replete with glaring examples when politicians were dragged down more by their friends than enemies.
As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saw one more exit, this time, RPN Singh, his bunch of close friends, who he had propped up and made sure they received a good deal in the UPA government, the comparison to his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi cannot be overlooked. Both father and son have been let down by their friends and have been quite unlucky in friendships. Party president Sonia Gandhi, however, has been smarter and managed to keep a distance between her friends from her personal space and her professional advisors. For example, while journalist Suman Dubey and his family have been very close to Sonia Gandhi but have been very reticent about giving political advice to her.
Like Rajiv, Rahul Gandhi, too, has been encircled by the ‘Doon gang’. VP Singh and Arun Singh, to name just a few, had a grip over Rajiv Gandhi’s politics. Arun Singh is the starkest of them all. When Arun Singh was the MoS defence, the Indian Army, commanded by Chief of Army Staff General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, had planned extensive military exercises on the Indo-Pak border code named ‘Brasstacks’. The details and plans were cleared by Arun Singh. Fears had arisen in Pakistan that these exercises were a cover for cross-border intervention. Reports appeared in the Indian press that Pakistan was mobilising its troops into battle positions. It was seen as a big diplomatic goof-up and the ministry of external affairs was not kept in the loop. When then external affairs minister Natwar Singh pointed out to Rajiv Gandhi as PM even he was not kept in the loop by defence minister Arun Singh, therefore, he should be sacked. Rajiv responded by saying “he is a friend”. Rajiv was told that he was the Prime Minister not anybody’s friend. It so happened that as Bofors allegations gathered steam and Rajiv Gandhi found himself in hot water, his closest friends gradually abandoned him, including VP Singh and Arun Singh. It was seen as the betrayal, and sources say it was the one Rajiv Gandhi never got over with.
Cut to present times, Rahul Gandhi, perhaps, faces his toughest political times. His experiments in changing the style of the Grand Old Party has not met with success. Electorally, the Congress has not won in a long time. Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and other state elections will be a litmus test. But what’s hit him the most is the departure of his closest people — Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and RPN Singh.
In 2004, when the UPA was formed and Congress was at a high, Rahul Gandhi ensured his friends were made ministers and also had good ministries. Rahul would be in touch with them and often his ideas and vision found its way into the decisions and suggestions made by his friends. In public meetings and party functions, where Rahul and his ‘baba brigade’ would sit were the most coveted and powerful enclosures. After the Congress lost power in 2014, his friends lost, thus paving way for the ‘grand betrayal’.
In their exit, questions arose over Rahul Gandhi’s choice of friends. Many accused him of falling prey to a coterie culture like his grandmother Indira Gandhi and father Rajiv so much so, that while he may have been surrounded by bright people they were not always politically shrewd. With this came the sidelining of those who were seniors who had the mettle in the complex and now inevitable world of coalition politics. Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad among others were his mother Sonia’s “sound advisors” and successful ones too.
In the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which Rahul Gandhi was the captain of the ship, the fault was pinned to his advisors who had led him up the garden path. While there has been a shift in his advisors, the fact that many of his “Doon school friends,” who he began his political journey with him, are no longer with him. This goes on to show that like his father, Rahul Gandhi, too, has been unlucky in friendships. A caustic comment came from a member of Congress G-23 to News18.com after RPN Singh joined the BJP, “Rahul Gandhi dislikes us and does not trust us. But we are still with the party while those who he considered his friends have left him to join the enemy camp.”
As a famous Hindi film song goes, “Dushman na kare dost ne woh kaam kiya hai”.
Clearly, Rahul Gandhi’s education in politics and friendships is still a work in progress.
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