Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot episodes reflective of leadership crisis plaguing Congress: Political analysts

With Jyotiraditya Scindia having exited the Congress and Sachin Pilot rebelling, political observers feel the recent events relating to the two leaders were reflective of a deeper crisis of leadership plaguing the grand old party and lack of a clear roadmap.

The Congress on Tuesday cracked the whip on dissident leader Pilot, stripping him of the posts of Rajasthan's deputy chief minister and the party's state unit president, for revolting against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

The crisis for the Congress in the Hindi heartland state comes close on the heels of the jolt it received in Madhya Pradesh where its government fell after another young leader of the party, Jyotiraditya Scindia, quit and joined the BJP with MLAs supporting him.

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Political analyst Yogendra Yadav said, "Pilot episode, like the one involving Scindia, is merely the symptom of a deeper crisis that afflicts Congress: a party that does not have a clear roadmap, a coherent strategy, a credible leader."

The Congress, at present, is an organisation that possesses neither an ideology nor the glue of power that can bind it, the Swaraj India leader alleged.

Sanjay K Pandey, a political commentator and a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), said the two episodes involving Scindia and Pilot showed that the problem facing the Congress was very much internal.

"The Congress suffers from over centralisation of power in the hands of the family and a culture of the old guard coterie advising the top leadership," he told PTI.

"It is also reflective of a deeper leadership crisis that is plaguing the party with Rahul Gandhi stepping down and Sonia Gandhi made interim chief. There is lack of decisiveness that is hurting the party," he said.

Pandey said young talent is unable to come up in Congress ranks with the "old guard", which does not understand the pulse of the people in current times, dominating the scene in the party.

Former JNU professor and political commentator Kamal Mitra Chenoy said the party was marred by factionalism and nothing could be done until one was part of one faction or the other.

He said Pilot's move was wrong and instead of making moves allegedly against his own government, he should have first apprised the top leadership of his grievances directly.

"Sachin Pilot's case is different from that of Scindia's. He was PCC (Rajasthan) chief and had worked hard for the Congress to win in the state polls. His exit demoralises the young cadre as his was a success story youngsters looked to emulate in the party," a young Congress worker said.

Pilot has been upset since the Congress picked Gehlot as the chief minister after the 2018 assembly polls, while his own supporters insisted that he deserved credit for the party's victory as its state unit president.

The current crisis surfaced last Friday when the Rajasthan Police sent a notice to Pilot, asking him to record his statement over the alleged bid to bring down the government.

The same notice was sent to the chief minister and some other MLAs, but Pilot's supporters claimed that it was only meant to humiliate him.

The Special Operation Group (SOG) had sent out the notices after tapping a phone conversation between two men, who were allegedly discussing the fall of the Gehlot government.