Mr. P.C. Sethi had, in a manner of speaking, gone over the brink, leaving Mr. Rajiv Gandhi little choice but to take disciplinary action against him. It is not possible to convey the flavour of what the former Union home minister (during Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister) has had to say in his long interview to the editor of The Illustrated Weekly of India; those interested in it should read the original interview; for our purpose, it would suffice to say that Mr. Sethi has been extremely critical of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s style and qualities of leadership and of his close aides whom he has described as “snake, thief and fool”. Clearly this behaviour is not typical of Congressmen, however aggrieved and disenchanted with the leader. Why then has Mr. Sethi spoken the way he has and that too on record?
In view of his reputation, whether deserved or undeserved, for occasionally losing self-control, it is tempting to dismiss his interview as the rantings of “a mad man”. In fact, Mr. Sethi has been sensitive to this possibility and has therefore been keen to emphasise that he is not a “mad man”. Indeed, he appears to have acted with considerable deliberation in this case. For one thing, he has not said anything in the interview which he had not been saying privately for some months; loss of self-control could not have lasted for several months. For another, Mr. Sethi appears to have reacted to specific developments. He is convinced that his name was deleted from the list of new Cabinet ministers at the time of the last Cabinet reshuffle at the last minute and that this was done at the instance of the Congress vice-president, Mr. Arjun Singh. We are in no position to vouch for the accuracy of either statement. We are recalling these to make the point that Mr. Sethi has not spoken in a fit of temper. Mr. Sethi also undertook extensive tours of his home state of Madhya Pradesh apparently to mobilise support for himself so that the leadership could not trifle with him.
Mr. Sethi’s rivalry with Mr. Arjun Singh is understandable. Mr. Singh was his junior for years in Madhya Pradesh, though Mr. Singh rose to be the state’s chief minister in 1980. Perhaps they did not get on too well in Bhopal. So it is possible that as Mr. Arjun Singh consolidated his position in New Delhi both as vice-president of the Congress party and as one of Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s key advisers, Mr. Sethi fell threatened. Regardless of whether or not Mr. Singh used his influence with the Prime Minister to keep Mr. Sethi out of the Union Council of ministers, there can be no question that Mr. Sethi felt persecuted. In such a situation a run-of-the-mill Congressman would have bided his time. But Mr. Sethi is not a run-of-the-mill Congressman. He tends to speak out. Perhaps that explains the Sethi episode. Perhaps it is no more than an enactment of Madhya Pradesh political rivalries at the national stage. Mr. Sethi’s reference to Mr. V.C. Shukla and Mr. Shukla’s visit to Mr. Sethi’s residence on Thursday would suggest that this is the case. Mr. Shukla and Mr. Sethi too are old rivals. But they appear to have drawn close to each other in recent months because both have fell spurned by Mr. Gandhi and threatened by Mr. Arjun Singh’s status as Congress vice-president.
Mr. Sethi has been at pains to make it out that he has acted independently and that he has not concerted his moves with Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. That appears to be the case. Or else he would not have said that Mr. Mukherjee had no independent support base in his home state. Mr. Sethi has shown concern for the erosion of the position of Mr. Kamlapati Tripathi as the party’s working president and demanded action against Mr. Arjun Singh and Mr. Anjiah who, he contends, are responsible for this erosion. But there is no evidence of a link-up between Mr. Tripathi and Mr. Sethi either. The latter has behaved like a loner in New Delhi if not in Bhopal. And even if he had not, it is unlikely that Mr. Tripathi or other Congressmen who are unhappy with the leadership would have rushed to his rescue. Mr. Sethi has to take the consequences of his actions and utterances; no one is going to share them. Even so the Sethi episode has taken place in the context of the talk of a developing Brahmin-Rajput confrontation within the Congress party and that may give it a significance it would otherwise have lacked.