The Rediff Special/ Ramesh Menon

Part I: 'What can a coward do to me?

Despite the devastating earthquake that ravaged Gujarat, both Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani were present at the funeral of Rajmata Vijaya Raje Scindia, who died on January 25. "Her death," said Advani, "marked the end of an era for the BJP."

Vajpayee spoke of her continued devotion to the party. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu praised her simplicity. And President K R Narayanan described the purposeful role she had played in post-independent India.

"She is our biggest loss since the death of Deendayal Upadhyay in the late sixties," says Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh. She was a passionate proponent of the BJP's brand of Hindutva and an inspiring force for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Former Rajasthan chief minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat voiced a common feeling when he said the void she had left could not be filled. Shekhawat, who is plagued by ill health, made it a point to attend the funeral in Gwalior. "I had to pay my last respects," he said.

The Rajmata was one of the BJP's tallest personalities. For more than 40 years, she had worked tirelessly as a political worker, first building the Jana Sangh and then the BJP. Along with her contemporary Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, she was one of the few royal women who stepped out of the palace to join the turbulent world of politics. "She did not get into politics for the sake of politics," says Rajnath Singh, "but wanted to use it as a channel to do things for her people."

She was different from her peers. The Rajmata did not behave like a Maharani. She had no pretentious notions about her superiority. Her simplicity worked like magic; it was the reason why she was so popular, so respected. "She never turned anyone away," says Pratapsingh Dogra, a Gwalior resident. "She met everyone and listened to them. Meeting her was like meeting your own mother."

Ironically, she started her political career with the Congress. Jawaharlal Nehru was categorically told the Congress would make no headway in Gwalior if she was not with the party. So Nehru persuaded her to join the Congress, much to the chagrin of her husband, Maharaja Jivajirao Scindia, who did not want his family to meddle in politics.

In 1957, she contested from Guna and won.

She won two Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket and was a very influential force in the region. Naturally, she wanted a say in the granting of tickets for the Madhya Pradesh assembly election. She wanted her candidates to be nominated in Gwalior, Shivpuri, Bhind, Morena, Guna, Shajapur, Mandsaur and Ujjain (all part of the earlier Gwalior state). But then MP chief minister Dwarka Prasad Mishra said one person could not call the shots in a democratic set-up.

Indira Gandhi, then the Congress leader, stood by Mishra, a man political observers described as her Chankaya. A slighted Rajmata quit the party and formed the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal, under which banner her nominees fought the assembly election. All of them won. She then persuaded Congress, Jana Sangh and Independent MLAs to topple Mishra's government. Though she could easily have become chief minister, she chose not to. After all, she was a king-maker. The Jana Sangh's Govind Narain Singh became chief minister and, for the first time in its history, the party tasted power.

She was one of the BJP's founders. With her leadership qualities, she remained one of its strongest pillars. In an illustrious career spanning four decades, she was elected to the Lok Sabha seven times, and twice to the Rajya Sabha. She lost just one election, when she contested against Indira Gandhi in Rai Bareilli, in January 1980. She was so popular that she won her last election in October 1999, despite being too ill to campaign.

Her only son Madhavrao does not have the same appeal. Though he has built a base for himself in Madhya Pradesh, observers feel it is mainly due to his lineage. In recent elections, his margin of victory has been dangerously thin. "We wanted to teach him a lesson without making him lose as it would have meant a loss of face for our dear Rajmata," says Rakesh, a Gwalior resident.

While his mother was accessible and respected for her sincerity, her sense of fairplay and her values, Madhavrao is sometimes seen as arrogant, with a feudal hang-up. "If he is such a big shot in his party," asks Sardar Sambaji Rao Angre, Madhavrao's bete noir and the Rajmata's confidant and political mentor, "How come Sonia did not even come to his mother's funeral? How many Congress leaders were there to pay their last respects? Sonia did not even offer her condolences to him in Delhi."

Of her other children, Vasundhara Raje, the BJP MP from Dholpur in Rajasthan, is a Union minister of states. Yashodhara Raje, her youngest child, is a BJP MLA from Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh, and the likely inheritor of the Rajmata's parliamentary mantle. The eldest surviving daughter, Usha Raje Rana, maintains a low profile.

Even when she was thrown into Tihar Jail by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, the Rajmata did not lose heart. Instead, she built the resolve of others like Rajmata Gayatri Devi, who was also imprioned in Tihar, saying they should not lose the will to fight. She used her time in jail well, talking to criminals and prostitutes about religious scriptures and teaching them bhajans. Even in jail, she became a mother figure.

After the Emergency, she concentrated on building the Janata Party and, later, the BJP. She also built educational institutions; Gwalior is dotted with the institutions and schools she patronised or started.

The Rajmata could have easily used her immense clout in the BJP to bargain for more power, but she kept away. Deliberately. It was a decision that underlined her dignity and political astuteness. In the initial years of the Jana Sangh and even the BJP, the Rajmata used her financial resources to keep the parties going. Sources claim Madhavrao did not take kindly to the family wealth being spent this way.

The BJP stands to lose after the Rajmata's death. Parshuram Singh Bhadoria, a former minister from Bhind, believes "the hold the BJP had in Madhya Pradesh will now break." Rightwing activists hope he is wrong. Narsinh Joshi, all India joint secretary of the VHP, says it will all depends on the BJP. "The party could take forward her Hindutva agenda. People would go for it as they respected her."

What is clear, though, is that the Rajmata's death spells the end of an era for the Scindias. Life, for the family, will never be the same again. Palace intrigue could end destroying the respect they have left today.

Photographs: Saab Press. Design: Dominic Xavier

You might also want to read...
'Madhavrao shall not light my pyre'
'What can a coward do to me?'
Rajmata amar rahe
'After I prayed before Rajmata, I felt a sense of peace'
Thousands pay homage to Rajmata
Kushabhau Thakre pays tribute
Dr J K Jain pays tribute
Rajmata was tender, yet tough: Vajpayee
Vijaya Raje Scindia dies

The Rediff Specials