Madhya Pradesh | No early sunset for 'guru' Diggy
Situation wanted: what future can an ex-CM and ace politician aspire for? Certainly more than an ashram
A training institute for politicians, an ashram, playing peacemaker. That to-do list may sound less like superannuation, more like superintendence—at least by intention. But then, we’re talking about Digvijaya Singh. Some like him, others don’t, but the former Madhya Pradesh CM always seems to do enough to ensure there’s no third row of ‘neutrals’. Now, as his second term in the Rajya Sabha comes to an end on June 21, ‘Diggy raja’ is presenting a new twist to his autobiography—at age 79.
A training institute for politicians, an ashram, playing peacemaker. That to-do list may sound less like superannuation, more like superintendence—at least by intention. But then, we’re talking about Digvijaya Singh. Some like him, others don’t, but the former Madhya Pradesh CM always seems to do enough to ensure there’s no third row of ‘neutrals’. Now, as his second term in the Rajya Sabha comes to an end on June 21, ‘Diggy raja’ is presenting a new twist to his autobiography—at age 79.
Digvijaya had declared in January that he would not be in the race. (The Congress had the chance to take one of the three RS seats up for grabs, but party candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected.) In March, he even shared a video featuring an about-to-retire bank manager. It has been an open field for speculation ever since. What role could the Congress envisage for a politician who has uniquely spent time both in its upper echelons as well as out in the sun as a field politician like none other?
His 192-day, 3,300-km Narmada Parikrama had touched 110 of his state’s 230 assembly segments. He connected intimately with millions of rural voters. That was the prologue to the Congress comeback in 2018. Lately, he was one among those who walked the entire length of the Bharat Jodo Yatra with Rahul Gandhi, fit as a fiddle at 75. Would this veteran of padayatras now walk off into the sunset?
Perish the thought. In private conversations, Diggy calls the 2028 assembly election perhaps the last chance for the Congress in the state—and he would like to help. He has other ideas too. “This may sound difficult to pull off, but I plan to set up a politics training institute where all of India’s ideologies are taught—Congress, BJP, Samajwadi, Communist, DMK,” he told india today. The institute is to be modelled on the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhani of which BJP ideologue Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is the vice-chair.
That dialogic spirit is part of another role he sees for himself. Diggy is offering his services as an inter-faction coordinator! The task won’t be easy. The divisions begin at home—his own younger brother, Laxman Singh, a former five-term MP, has been expelled for making anti-party remarks. But state Congress chief Jitu Patwari does have his hands full trying to get senior Congressmen to accept his leadership.
Another idea harks back to his spiritual self. “During my Narmada Parikrama, I realised there were not too many options for pilgrims to stay,” he said. So an ashram is in the offing; land has been identified at Rohni in Narsinghpur district. But a full retreat to an ashram is inconceivable for one who is treated as a guru in politics.
