Ajay Maken Gives Mallikarjun Kharge His First Jolt
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2022-11-17 00:09:00
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Old habits
die hard. In the midst of doing some good things (electing a president, Bharat
Jodo Yatra), the Congress, as is its wont, sat indecisively on the report
submitted by Central observers Ajay Maken and Mallikarjun Kharge (who,
ironically, is now the president of the party) against the indiscipline and
disrespect shown by MLAs loyal to Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot to the
party high command by boycotting the legislative party meeting called by the
observers and holding a parallel meeting instead. This has led to Ajay Maken
putting in his papers as in-charge of party affairs in Rajasthan.
It is
obvious that after the huge insult Maken faced at that time, it would have been impossible for him to look after the party affairs in Rajasthan with any degree
of self respect and authority. He would have to deal with the same set of MLAs
who had spurned Kharge and him with impunity and who were not even rapped on
the knuckled after Gehlot met Sonia Gandhi and settled things in his favour. At
that time, Sonia Gandhi had shown immense outrage and had asked for report of
the incident from Maken and Kharge. But nothing more was heard of it after Gehlot
met her. Gehlot still remains chief minister and the MLAs, including his chief
loyalists, move around with chests puffed a little more as they could get away
with insulting the high command.
Maken
waited two months for them to be hauled up for indiscipline. He must have
thought that with Kharge in command, something would happen as he was witness
to the fracas. But since Kharge too is not inclined to cross swords with
Gehlot, Maken, like any self-respecting person, had no option but to opt out of
managing the party's affairs in the state. His immediate trigger was the Bharat
Jodo Yatra which will enter the Rajasthan leg in a week's time. Maken obviously
did not relish the idea of lowering his self-esteem further by overseeing the
Yatra with the same set of persons against whom he had filed a report for party
indiscipline and who had not been punished for that.
This is one
of the biggest shortcomings of the Congress - of sitting on reports and not
taking action. Even if Gehlot had apologized to Sonia Gandhi, what about Maken
and Kharge - the two who faced the insult on the ground and on behalf of the
party and the high command? Did the party ask the rebelling MLAs to apologize
to them? Did the party take action against them? Did Sonia Gandhi, so agitated when
the incident took place, call Maken and Kharge and explained things to them
after Gehlot met her and apologized? The Congress will have to be more decisive
in such matters if it wants to keep its house in order.
