Ahmad
Patel Barely Survives To Keep Sonia’s Rahul Hopes Alive
Saeed
Naqvi
It would be rank bad form to describe
Ahmad Patel as a form of life under Sonia Gandhi’s furniture, because the
entire Congress Working Committee defers to him as “Ahmad Bhai” with varying
degrees of insincerity.
Look, how he came out of the throng
which was blocking his path to the Rajya Sabha. P. Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi
Azad, Anand Sharma would not be marching back and forth from the Election
Commission past midnight pleading for “Ahmad Bhai” had the Congress President
not monitored the events, remote in hand, on a minute by minute basis.
She must have been close to a nervous
breakdown when the numbers of Gujarat party MLAs sank from 57 to 43 who had to
be whisked away to a Karnataka holiday resort to stop further hemorrhage. Even then
a couple dug burrows to sneak out. If those two exhibitionists had not been
caught flashing before “unauthorized persons”, Ahmad Bhai’s goose had nearly
been cooked.
It is, ofcourse, fake news that in celebration,
he lifted up his arms in front of Sonia Gandhi and sang:
“Hum laaye hain toofan se
Kishti
nikaal ke.”
(From the eye of the storm have
I
rowed the boat to the bank)
Parties fight to advance their mission
or when parties face adversity. The Congress fights when chosen leaders are in
trouble. A reversal for Ahmad Patel in Gujarat would have been an enormous loss
of face for Sonia. By helping her keep her face what does the party gain? That would
be a hurtful question to the deluded who are convinced that one day the
Congress, like the Phoenix, will rise again.
There are other important, unproven stories.
Sonia and, by extension, “Ahmad Bhai”, have to be somehow saved because they
have the key to the treasure. This is the testimony of Congressmen who have
picked up their marbles and walked away from the game. And their tribe is growing.
That “Ahmad Bhai” made such heavy
weather of a solitary seat reflects on a matter of some political value. “Ahmad
Bhai” is no mass leader. He would not be able to collect 100 persons for his
meeting. He is a maestro in pre and post electoral politics – the consummate
fixer across the political field, particularly in Gujarat where a great deal of
back scratching between him and the likes of Amit Shah has gone on for some
time. In direct proportion to the growing self confidence of the Modi-Shah
duet, such deals may now onwards be at a discount. They may even be
discontinued without notice. Were Ahmad Bhai’s travails part of this shifting
of gears by the two “Gujjus” because they are on a winning streak?
Ahmad Bhai’s deal making abilities in
Gujarat became the subject of some speculation even on the eve of the 2014
elections when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, warned of an impending Congress rout,
turned up to save her mother and brother by campaigning in Rae Bareli and
Amethi. She did save them.
Her pitch was shrill. Her family was
being “humiliated” by the BJP. They were targeting her husband’s land deals. Like
her grandmother, she would fight back, she said. She then unleashed her finest
invective on Narendra Modi’s “snoopgate”, how the Gujarat strongman had
allegedly organized surveillance of a woman architect across these states.
Poor Priyanka did not even know that a
few days ago there was a front page cabinet announcement that matters of such
sensitivity will now only be handled by the next union cabinet. Priyanka could
scream herself hoarse on “snoopgate”, “Jashodaben”, “Ishrat Jehan” but it was
now so much shouting into the wind. Her leaders, “Ahmad Bhai”, and Manmohan
Singh included, had waved a white flag at Modi. An electorate on the eve of a key
election may be forgiven for being totally befuddled at the turn of events. How
should the common man know that the deal has been struck because Sonia does not
want Priyanka to worry herself sick about Robert Vadra’s travails.
That even so, there is an occasional eruption
of fierce sloganeering against each other is, according to Congress sources, a
possible part of a broad understanding.
What Shankersinh Vaghela told a group of
journalists during the 2002 Gujarat riots sheds light on “Ahmad Bhai’s” genius.
Just imagine, the leader of the opposition, Sonia Gandhi, did not even visit
Ahmedabad after it had witnessed the most ghoulish pogrom.
“Had Sonia gone on hunger strike outside
Raj Bhawan in Gandhinagar on February 28 (peak of pogrom), the situation would have
been controlled”, Vaghela said. Fingers were pointed at “Ahmad Bhai”, for having
advised Sonia against visiting Gujarat.
All of this has history behind it. It fits
into the Congress unprecedented victory in 1984 being seen by the party as majoritarian
consolidation against the minorities, in this instance the Sikhs. But the floodgates
had been opened. By 1986, the most secular of congress General Secretaries, V.N.
Gadgil, told me with considerable alarm:
“A feeling is growing among Hindus that Muslims
are being appeased.” The Congress had turned. Rajiv Gandhi was to go far on this
route. He gave the call for Ram Rajya in 1989 from the hallowed precincts of Ayodhya.
How appeased the Muslims were became clear
after the Sachar Committee report in 2005. The Sonia-Manmohan duet did not do a
jot to implement recommendations following the report.
Pundits are shy of admitting that what we
have in competition are two parallel efforts at Hindu consolidation: one is pursuing
an aggressive Hindutva agenda, an awesome machine on the roll. The Congress, which
has already crashed between two stools, remains frozen but only on one stool. The
other stool has been moved from the drawing room. The party is ever cautious not
to be seen with Muslims on issues that might drive away the Hindu vote which, alas,
is already proceeding towards the BJP, in single file or, maybe, two.
In this critical moment, Rahul is inspiring
poetry. A variation on the old limerick:
As Congressmen went up the stair
They met Rahul who
wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
We wish, we wish
he’d stay away”
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