First Read | Unravelling the tale of nepotism and dynasty politics in Congress

The long and dreary tale of the Congress turning from a political party to a family fiefdom that is often accused of promoting corruption and nepotism, is most appropriately represented by several of those incidents which aren’t generally reported in the media. They not only make an interesting read but should also kick off the next round of debate on how the oldest political party of India has become a family enterprise and can something be done to democratise it? Or is it doomed under the present leadership, as predicted by most of the political pundits?

Rasheed Kidwai’s latest book Leaders, Politicians, Citizens: Fifty Figures who influenced India’s politics should help kick off this debate.

Screengrab courtesy Amazon.co.in

Kidwai is known to have tracked Congress party very closely for more than three decades as a journalist and so he has many interesting anecdotes to tell. Talking about Motilal Vora, who was the Congress treasurer for 18 years and whose name has cropped up in the controversial ‘National Herald’ case also, Kidwai writes, “Vora…knew the most fiercely guarded secrets of the Grand Old Party-especially how money came into the party’s coffers and how it was spent. Vora also knew the identity of every faceless donor the Congress had.”

“At night, Vora would often be seen strolling in the compound of 24 Akbar Road. He would say, it was a routine after-dinner walk. A closer look revealed something more. Vora would politely ask bystanders and party workers to leave the office premises. Minutes later, invariably, a vehicle would arrive, carrying ‘goods’ that required safe, urgent and discreet parking.”

Kidwai further adds, “When Sitaram Kesari demitted the office of AICC treasurer, Vora discovered a false ceiling in a room in the party office. He was unusually wary of inspecting it. When asked, Vora had said nonchalantly, ‘Do you expect him to leave anything unattended?’”

One of the most interesting chapters in this book is a profile of Ottavio Quattrochi, the man accused of receiving kickbacks in the infamous Bofors scandal of the 1980s that costed Rajiv Gandhi his government in 1989. The book says that Quattrochis were close friends of Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi. During 1984-1989, when Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister, the proximity between Gandhis and Quattarochis was quite well known.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi. ANI

“The Quattrochis were also regulars at the Sunday brunch served at the Gandhi residence. The gatherings always included Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, Suman and Manjulika Dubey, Mohan and Nirmal Thadani, Michael and Usha Albuquerque, Sunita and Ramesh Kohli, Deep Kaul, Romi Chopra, Arun and Nina Singh, and Satish and Sterre Sharma…The exclusiveness of the gathering led to a lot of heartburn and rumour mongering among those not included in the Prime Minister’s ‘inner circle’.”

When Ramchandra Rath, a former Youth Congress chief and close associate of Sanjay Gandhi had to step down as fertilizer minister in the government, the Delhi grapevine had it that this was the price he paid for keeping Quattrochi waiting. Rath later claimed he was having lunch with the then Odisha governor and didn’t know who he was at the time.

The book brings to the fore the inner contradictions of the Congress party.

Two examples would suffice in this regard: The first one is related to the Congress veteran turned dissident Makhan Lal Fotedar. The second example is related to the blow hot-blow cold relations between Congress and Shiv Sena. In this context the chain of events appears to have come full circle in Maharashtra.

First about Fotedar, who was an informal adviser to Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.  But he was removed from the Congress Working Committee apparently as he had reservations about Rahul Gandhi’s capability to lead the Congress Party.

Fotedar had observed in this autobiographical account The Chinar Leaves: A political memoir, “Rahul Gandhi’s leadership is unacceptable to this country and Sonia Gandhi has her best years behind her. The party has no one to provide direction. It refuses to learn.”

Fotedar highlights the internal struggle of the Congress Party at the top echelons as he wrote in his memoir, “Rahul had a certain stubbornness and his motivation to become a leader was not very strong. People around Sonia ji secretly did not wish him to succeed because they realised that if Rahul grew as a leader, they would themselves become irrelevant. The dilemma before Sonia ji was that, on the one hand she could not do without her coterie, while on the other, she had an overriding desire to see her son succeed in politics.”

Kidwai observes, “Several senior Congress leaders had privately said they saw some merit in Fotedar’s criticism.”

As far as Shiv Sena-Congress relationship is concerned, it is interesting to note that in Sena’s initial years, it was used by Congress to ‘fix’ Morarji Desai, VK Krishna Menon and several other influential players, according to Kidwai who further mentions, “…When the Congress government in Maharashtra was worried over the Communists gaining a foothold in the industrial units of north Mumbai …the Shiv Sena’s job was to fight communists-by any means necessary — and to protect the Congress bastion.”

According to Kidwai, “In the 1980 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, the Sena did not field any candidates against the Congress… Later too Thackeray would support the Congress’ presidential nominees in 2007 and 2012.”

The Shiv Sena struck an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in 1995. The alliance was undone in 2019 by Uddhav Thackeray and he formed a government with support of Congress and NCP. Incidentally, according to Kidwai’s book, it was a Congress government in Maharashtra that had imprisoned Bal Thackeray for 100 days in 1969!

(Leaders, Politicians, Citizens: Fifty Figures who influenced India’s politics’, by Rasheed Kidwai, Hachette India)

The reviewer is an author and columnist who has written several books. Views expressed are personal

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