For the first time, Kamal Nath, a former Union minister and the chief of the Madhya Pradesh Congress, is leading the party campaign in a State election. Nath is the senior most parliamentarian in the 16th Lok Sabha, having won the Chhindwara parliament seat nine times since 1980. Out of power in the State since the last 15 years, the Congress is focussing on “unfulfilled” promises of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, whom the party has termed as a “Ghoshnaveer” (a man of hollow promises).
Kamal Nath is in league of his own in the Congress. Nath has been a leader who has been part of the Congress since Sanjay Gandhi era. A man who had contributed in the fall of Janata regime of 1979, sowing seeds of discontent between Morarji Desai, Charan Singh and making full use of maverick Raj Narain.
Nath has maintained a track record of being a “go getter” and a “doer”. When the UPA was struggling to push through a bill on the FDI in retail, Nath performed a near miracle, bringing BSP leader Mayawati to vote for the bill in the Rajya Sabha in the later half of 2008. Just as confident opposition leaders were retiring to bed, Nath was with Mayawati in the company of Satish Mishra promising the BSP supremo to bring in SC/ST job reservation bill in Parliament in exchange of her support to the FDI.
Against this backdrop, Nath’s appointment as the MPCC chief is a signal that Rahul Gandhi is finally acknowledging leaders with seniority and proven track record. The big question is whether the Doon School, St Xavier Calcutta alumnus will be able to outwit Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh’s longest serving chief minister? Nath started eyeing Madhya Pradesh soon after the Congress’ humiliating defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He deftly worked out intra-party strategic alliances with Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia. While Scindia initially sulked after Nath’s appointment as the MPCC chief in May 2018, Nath quickly got Digvijaya Singh, Ajay Singh, Suresh Pachauri, Kantilal Bhuria and half a dozen other regional satraps on his side.
In MP Congress circle, Nath is called "Bada bhai" of Diggy Raja – a tag he earned during the ten-year of Digvijay Singh rule (1993-2003) when Nath and Digvijay had neutralised veterans like Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia and Shukla brothers (all dead now). During the Digvijay rule (1993-2003), Nath's wishes were treated as command as the chief minister publicly acknowledged Nath as "Bada bhai" and the real power behind the throne.
As a politician, Nath realised that he had far better chance of success in becoming the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2018 and contributing for Congress victory in 2019 general elections than serving as AICC general secretary.
Nath, son of a businessman from Meerut, was a contemporary of Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi at Doon School, where he was affectionately called "Roly". He later earned a BCom degree from St Xavier's, Calcutta. At the height of Sanjay’s clout during 1975-76, there used to be a slogan, “Indira Gandhi ke do haath, Sanjay Gandhi aur Kamal Nath.”
Nath is known for his ready wit. He had narrated how travelling from Paris to Brussels by train with then European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, he had explained his stand against agricultural protectionism by the developed countries. "Here are the fat cows living on subsidised food and they can't stand on their legs. That is my story and that is my argument," he had told Mandelson. At another occasion, he was asked what time he gets up in the morning. Nath quickly said, "first ask me what time I sleep!"
Nath has nursed his Chhindwara constituency well and visits it every month. It's part of local lore how he once got executives from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation to visit Chhindwara as his guests so he could persuade them to extend a loan for a central project that involved building a dam on the local Pench river.
In February 2007, he had got industry chamber CII to hold a conclave in Chhindwara. Two private jets carrying leading Indian industrialists had landed on the Nath family's airstrip. One of the upshots: a spice park in the constituency.
Nath has got sucked into a few controversies too. In 2011, party rivals accused him of inviting Baba Ramdev to Chhindwara to organise a campaign against the UPA II government. A party member from Ujjain, Prem Chand Guddu, had at that point of time written to Sonia Gandhi alleging Nath had raised Rs 25 lakh for the campaign. Nath denied any involvement. Earlier, during the last days of the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in the mid-1990s, Nath had been forced to quit the cabinet after being accused in the Jain hawala case.
Nath’s role in 1984 has been hazy and often treated as a forgotten, closed chapter. However, the ghosts of 1984 came back to haunt Nath when during a visit to the US, he found himself summoned by a US federal district court in a civil case filed under the Alien Torts Claims Act, where the petitioners have sought compensatory and punitive damages for several allegations, including crimes against humanity, degrading treatment and wrongful killing.
In a series of interviews, Nath has been stressing on the fact he had never been charged in any court and questioned why these allegations were being raised more than two decades after the tragedy and that too in a foreign land. "For the last 25 years I wasn't involved... suddenly in 2010 I get involved... There was nobody who stood up and said that he was a victim or that I was in any way connected. So I'm surprised and appalled," Nath had said.
As a campaigner, Nath is focussing on Vyapam scam, farmers unrest, caste conflicts between dalits and upper castes, crime against women, corruption in high places and disquiet in the state bureaucracy over influence of certain bureaucrats. He is confident that given 15 years of BJP rule in the state and primacy of Chouhan in state politics, prime minister Narendra Modi’s high-pitched campaign would not help the BJP much. “Assembly polls tend to be fought on local issues and on that count, Chouhan and BJP have little to showcase,” Nath recently told this correspondent. For past four months, the Congress under Nath is working on a multipronged strategy. First and foremost, it wants to make a dent in Chouhan’s good image. The Congress is searching for a catchy slogan and a spin to poke Chouhan’s mama (maternal uncle) image and project him as someone who betrayed masses’ confidence and trust. Unity in the faction-ridden Congress is another mantra that is being addressed by presenting Digvijaya Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Nath as a united face of the party.
The outcome of Madhya Pradesh assembly polls along with Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telengana and Mizoram will have a crucial bearing on the national politics too. If the Congress manages to wrest Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, party chief Rahul Gandhi will not only get confidence but has a potential of becoming a rallying point of a rainbow coalition. BJP success on the other hand will not only demoralise the opposition but create sharp differences between the Congress and non-NDA allies like the Samajwadi party, Trinamul, Bahujan Samaj Party and others. The BJP victory in two or more election-bound States would be a huge shot in the arms of Prime Minister Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to an extend where victory in 2019 general elections would become a foregone conclusion.
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Rasheed Kidwai is Visiting Fellow at Observer Research Foundation. He tracks politics and governance in India. Rasheed was formerly associate editor at The Telegraph, Calcutta. He ...
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