Jaipur: If there is one person in Rajasthan who could have stood between BJP and the 25 Lok Sabha seats here, it had to be Sachin Pilot. By nominating him as the new chief of the Rajasthan Congress, Rahul Gandhi has shown the first signs of political acumen. So, prima facie Pilot could be seen as a symptom of the Congress's recovery from its ideological malaise and Rahul's evolving maturity.
For ages, Rajasthan's Congress was a bonded labour of the idea that only casteism and social engineering get you votes. This ensured that ability, charisma and popularity were sacrificed in favour of the Jat-Brahmin-OBC calculation. Pilot's nomination suggests that after decades of mindless pursuit of the strategy that has brought the Congress to the brink of extinction, the party is willing to finally invest in a person, not in a caste.
Pilot, a surname that indicates nothing more than his lineage and a high-flier's ambition to outsiders, is a Gurjar. If caste calculations were to be considered, his appointment as the face of the Congress would have been disastrous. Gurjars are around five per cent of the population, they are concentrated in just a few pockets of the state and even on their home turf, they live on the fringes because of the domination of Meenas and Jats. Their presence in the power circles is almost negligible. In the state's bureaucracy, there is not a single Gurjar IAS officer; in the police there isn't one Gurjar in the top brass. Obviously, politics, power and Gurjars do not coexist.
Yet, Pilot could be the party's savior and mascot.
To understand why Pilot could click, it is important to look at the political history of Rajasthan. In six decades of politics, Rajasthan has had just three mass leaders—Mohan Lal Sukhadia, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Vasundhara Raje. None of them was a Jat, Brahmin or from an OBC.
One of the reasons for the BJP's success in the state has been its ability to identify this and invest in a leader who had the traits of becoming the face of the state and was not a representative of a powerful caste. But the Congress did the exact opposite; in the process promoting people like Ashok Gehlot (OBC) and Chandrabhan (Jat) whose ability was suspect. The result of this obsession with castes is that today the Congress doesn't have a single popular face from within the state.
Sachin Pilot
Sachin, in more ways than one, is an outsider. His father Rajesh had come to Rajasthan from Uttar Pradesh in 1984 on the insistence of Rahul's father in 1984. And in his 12 years of politics, Sachin too has remained in Delhi; his presence in the politics of Rajasthan has been confined to just Lok Sabha elections. But his popularity has never been suspect.
The trajectory of the Pilots in Rajasthan shows that the family has been acceptable in several districts of the state. Father Rajesh won from Bharatpur and Dausa, mother Rama won from Hindoli near Kota and lost from Jhalawar against Raje, and Sachin himself shifted to Ajmer after his original constituency Dausa was reserved. And, if political gossip is to be believed, Pilot's next destination is Bhilwara. So, the Pilots have been political itinerants, a factor that has helped them gain acceptability amidst a wide circle.
Pilot's urbane, suave looks, his Wharton background, a Territorial Army stint and the ability to cultivate friends in the media give him a headstart over other politicians in the state. It makes him a natural favourite among youngsters and women, segments that currently Raje monopolises. Pilot's other strengths—a non-controversial past, oratorical skills and the image of the educated-boy-next-door—could soon make him rise fast in the state's political hierarchy. If Pilot stays away from the cheap stratagem of becoming a Gurjar leader and avoids the trap of pitching himself as a son-in-law of the Abdullahs of Kashmir, he can become the leader of an undivided Rajasthan. If, and this is a big if, the Congress manages to survive the setback of a humiliating Lok Sabha loss in 2014 nationally, Pilot has it in him to eclipse Raje in the next election.
Pilot's biggest challenge would be to revive the spirits of Congress workers, who have given up on the party after the mind-numbing loss in the recent Vidhan Sabha polls. His other obstacle would be Gehlot, who has had a history of successfully destroying anybody capable of becoming his replacement in the Congress. Perhaps Rahul would soon help Pilot by packing Gehlot off to some state miles from Jaipur, if not to Siberia.
Pilot's biggest advantage is that he starting with the lowest-possible expectations. Nobody believes that the Rajasthan Congress will get up from the mat and put up a fight in the Lok Sabha polls. So, even if he helps the party win a few seats, Pilot would be counted as a winner.
Pilot, to use an apt analogy, is expected to salvage a flight that is destined to crash land. If he succeeds, he would become a hero. Even if he fails, the Congress will reward him with a long tenure for being a willing martyr to Rahul's cause.
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