Madhavrao Scindia: Sonia loyalist who could have beaten Manmohan to PM's chair

"Wait till the UP elections are over and you will get all your answers. Things will change."It was late August 2001. Parliament was in session when Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha Madhavrao Scindia spoke to Frontline about the uncertainty surrounding the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. Asked what could come next, as the Congress lacked the numbers and Sonia Gandhi faced difficulties winning allies, Scindia offered this reply. "Things will change," he reiterated.Things did change, but not in the way the Guna MP, or anyone else, could have imagined.Weeks later, on September 30, 2001, Madhavrao Scindia died in a plane crash at the age of 56. The death ended the political journey of the Gwalior royal, who had increasingly been described as one of the Congress's most credible national faces and, by some, in political circles, "a possible prime minister". Experts believe Sonia Gandhi-loyalist Scindia would have become the Prime Minister after the Congress-led UPA won the 2004 Lok Sabha polls."Madhavrao Scindia, like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Pranab Mukherjee, was probably one of the best prime ministers India never had. His rise was cruelly cut short by fate — at the same time as when the Congress was on the trail of a comeback," journalist-author Rasheed Kidwai wrote in his book, The House of Scindias: A Saga of Power, Politics and Intrigue. "Madhavrao Scindia would have been Prime Minister if he had lived," K Natwar Singh, the diplomat-turned-politician, told ANI in 2020.So, how close was the former Maharaja of Gwalior to becoming the Congress's top man? The question and the episode are worth revisiting 25 years after Madhavrao Scindia died in a plane crash. Madhavrao Scindia died after a ten-seater Cessna C-90 private twin-turboprop aircraft flying from New Delhi to Kanpur crashed near Motta village in Uttar Pradesh. (Image: India Today Group) A MAHARAJA WHO CHOSE ELECTORAL POLITICSScindia was born on March 26, 1945, into the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior. He studied at the Scindia School in Gwalior and later at Oxford University. Despite growing up amid the privileges associated with royalty, he entered electoral politics at an unusually young age.The scion of the Scindia family won his first Lok Sabha election from Gwalior in 1971, at the age of 26. He was a nine-time MP and had never lost a Lok Sabha election after entering Parliament in 1971.Scindia's political journey was not simple.In 1971, he contested as an independent with the support of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, a party his family had traditionally patronised. In 1977, the former maharaja of Gwalior moved to the Congress despite resistance from members of his family. He won the Gwalior seat again.His mother, Vijayaraje Scindia, was a prominent figure associated with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh and later the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The political differences became the Scindia's became a part of Gwalior's political folklore.The Times of India (TOI) in 2001 noted one such episode from the 1984 Lok Sabha election, when Scindia was given a last-minute Congress ticket to contest from Gwalior against BJP's Atal Bihari Vajpayee.When Vijayaraje Scindia was asked whom she would support, Scindia or Vajpayee, according to the TOI, she raised both hands and said, "They are both my sons."The TOI report analysed that the gesture by Vijayaraje was interpreted locally as a reference to the Congress symbol and Scindia went on to defeat Vajpayee by around 1.75 lakh votes.Madhavrao Scindia's son Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was earlier with the Congress after his death, is now the Union Minister in the BJP-led government of PM Narendra Modi. Madhavrao Scindia became the titular maharaja of Gwalior when he was 15-year-old. He was a passionate cricket player and administrator who served as the President of the BCCI from 1990 to 1993. (Image: India Today Group) MADHAVRAO SCINDIA'S JOURNEY FROM MAHARAJA TO NATIONAL LEADERScindia's appeal among the people in Madhya Pradesh was not only because we belong to a royal lineage or the Congress leadership.India Today Magazine's 2001 report, called the scion of Scindias as a youthful and charismatic leader, with strong caste connections, linguistic ability and an electoral record that did not depend on the Congress high command. "They [Scindia and Rajesh Pilot] were star campaigners in the Hindi-speaking states," the India Today Magazine report noted.The MP, who had represented Guna and Gwalior, became a minister in PM Rajiv Gandhi's government in 1984 and later served as Union Railways Minister."He [Scindia] is credited with the modernisation and computerisation of the Railways and with maintaining the most cordial and professional relationship with his managerial cadres," a 2001 Frontline report noted.The maharaja also served as Civil Aviation Minister under PM PV Narasimha Rao's Congress government. After an aircraft crash in the early 1990s, in which there were no fatalities, Scindia resigned. He returned to Rao's Cabinet in 1995 as Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister.But, having a close look at Scindia's political journey, it becomes evident that it was in Parliament that his importance to the Congress became most visible. Madhavrao Scindia was popularly called the 'Prince Charming of Indian politics' and the 'People's Maharaja'. (Image: India Today Group) MADHAVRAO SCINDIA BECAME SONIA GANDHI'S PARLIAMENTARY DEPENDENCEAfter Rajiv Gandhi's death in 1991, when Sonia Gandhi became the Congress president in 1998, Scindia emerged as one of the people she relied on for parliamentary politics.Sonia Gandhi, who then lacked the "political dynamism of Indira Gandhi" and "Rajiv Gandhi's dynastic charisma", while also being a "linguistic handicap", Scindia took on several essential parliamentary responsibilities, according to the Frontline report."He [Scindia] also shared a unique understanding with Sonia Gandhi. In private conversations, Madhavrao was perhaps alone in a league of Congress leaders addressing politician Sonia on a first-name basis. He would, however, address her as 'Sonia ji' in the presence of others and at formal party forums. Sonia used to address him as Madhav and often invited him for a cup of tea or coffee at a rather short notice too," journalist-author Rasheed Kidwai wrote in his book."They had known each other from the time of her arrival in India and her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi in 1968," Kidwai added in his book.Scindia handled day-to-day party affairs inside and outside Parliament, represented the Congress at all-party meetings and participated in business advisory committee meetings."Scindia compensated for Sonia Gandhi's lack of debating skills and familiarity with parliamentary procedures," India Today Magazine noted in its 2001 report.His ability to speak both Hindi and English, and his skill at articulating arguments, made him an effective floor leader. His political positioning also helped him build relationships beyond the Congress.The Frontline report highlighted his secularism as a matter of conviction and said he had begun coordinating with Opposition parties, particularly the Left, as he believed the Congress could not counter the BJP's Hindutva politics by itself. In this 2009 image, Sonia Gandhi, the then-UPA Chairperson and Congress President, speaking at the release function of biography of Madhavrao Scindia in New Delhi. (Image: Getty) MADHAVRAO SCINDIA AND THE PRIME MINISTER FACE QUESTIONBy the late 1990s and early 2000s, the question of Scindia's national leadership potential was increasingly difficult to ignore.With the BJP-led government under the leadership of Vajpayee facing political challenges and the possibility of an alternative arrangement, several allies of the Congress did not consider Sonia Gandhi an appropriate choice for prime minister, according to media reports of the time. In that assessment, Scindia emerged as a credible alternative."Left parties were receptive to Scindia and that he was also considered acceptable to People's Front constituents such as the Samajwadi Party, whose president Mulayam Singh Yadav had a personal rapport with him," Frontline reported.But, Scindia himself repeatedly played down the possibility. Scindia was a man who believed he lacked the political instinct to become prime minister. He reportedly told people, "I am not manipulative enough," when suggestions were made that he could one day occupy the post.The Times of India, in its 2001 report after the plane crash, captured the paradox differently. It headlined the report on Scindia's life as "The Man Who Could Have Become the PM".Looking back, journalist-author Rasheed Kidwai contrasted Scindia's popularity with that of Manmohan Singh."Madhavrao was much more popular as a leader than Manmohan Singh, who is by nature a reticent man. A measure of Madhavrao's popularity can be estimated from the fact that he would win every Congress Working Committee election he contested by a huge margin, without even being part of the 'informal panel' that would be formed as a quid pro quo to garner votes from delegates," Kidwai wrote in his book. Madhavrao Scindia had cordial, trusted, and principled relationships with alliance partners and opposition leaders throughout his political career. (Image: India Today Group) 'THE DEATH OF A LEADER DOES NOT LEAVE A VACUUM'Scindia's death on September 30, 2001, triggered immediate questions about what his absence would mean for the Congress.India Today Magazine's 2001 report revealed that several Congress leaders rejected the idea that Scindia's death had created an existential crisis for the party.A Congress Working Committee (CWC) member argued that while the loss of Scindia and Rajesh Pilot was immense, saying that the party had become "orphaned", it went too far. Yet others were far less optimistic.Former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Salman Khurshid, quoted by India Today Magazine, said that "the nursery that had produced leaders such as Scindia and Pilot had closed down."Delhi-based journalist and author Inder Malhotra, writing in The Guardian's obituary in 2001, described Scindia as an outstanding Congress figure and said that amid leaders who were content to remain "sycophants and courtiers." His death was a shattering blow to the party.The contrast of views explains why Scindia's political legacy continued to invite debate.A politician who was born into royalty but built his reputation through elections. He came from a family divided politically but became one of the Congress's most recognisable faces. He was seen as a possible prime minister but never openly pursued the chair with the determination normally associated with such ambition.- Ends