By Sanjiv Acharya
It has been a long established truth that if one is close to the Nehru-Gandhi family, that person is the most important person in the Congress party. While that doesn’t mean that experience, seniority or adherence to the party’s ideology are not important criteria to get the deserved responsibility in the party. But at the end of the day, only those who have direct and regular access to 10, Janpath, the most powerful residential address in India, the home of Congress President and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, are the ones who call the shots in the party.
Vincent George, who was the private secretary to Rajiv Gandhi and then to Sonia Gandhi after his assassination became one of the most powerful men in the Congress party when Sonia too over the reigns of the party from Sitaram Kesri. At that time he would decide almost everything, including the appointments for Sonia Gandhi. He would even put up notes about various leaders of the party suggesting how much importance she should give the person. For all practical purposes George was acting as the working presidentof the party and in that task he was assisted by two fellow Malayali staffers – Madhavan and Pillai. According to the buzz from those days, three important people including Captain Satish Sharma had ego clashes with George on day-to-day basis. Then Priyanka Gandhi entered on the scene and George had to shift his office from the Residence to his residence. Overnight, George’s responsibilities were split between Madhavan and Pillai and George retreated to a much lower profile trying to maintain his relevance with Sonia Gandhi.
Even as George was sidelined over the past six or seven years some people like Oskar Fernandes, Ramesh Chennithala, Manish Tiwari, Mebel Rebello and DP Rai, kept up their connections with him. And then with the appointment of Anil Sharma as the president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee and the re-nomination of Mabel Rebello to the Rajya Sabha rumors spread that George was back and Congress workers started visiting him again.
However, last week when Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi flew down to Kerala to attend the wedding of Madhavan’s son. The duo had skipped George’s daughter’s wedding last year and when they decided to make an appearance at Madhavan’s function, the message went out loud and clear – Madhavan is now literally the No.1 man at No. 10, Janpath.
He reached this position by following certain basic rules to retain the Family’s trust – never forget your actual role and responsibility, keep a low profile and stay strictly confined to the job assigned. And that he never entertained party leaders at his residence, the never used his position to get leaders appointed in the party a la George must have helped. A non-political person close to the Gandhi family said, “The family assess your worth, loyalty, commitment and neutral approach and a timely reward is given. Kanishka Singh is following the same rule in his role as private secretary of Rahul Gandhi. That’s why he is the most powerful.”