'Maharaj' stood apart in the pack

"i took the decision to resign within 30 seconds," madhavrao scindia said of the 1993 episode that arose from the crash of a leased tu-154 aircraft when he was union minister for civil aviation, "i could not have lived with my conscience otherwise". coming from scindia, there was a convincing ring about it. for among the cohorts, if not legions, of politicians in india, madhavrao scindia stood out as the politician with a difference. scion of the gwalior royal family, "maharaj", as he was addressed by his supporters, had wealth and education (scindia school, winchester college and new college, oxford) and a background that was surely atypical for a politician. yet, the dashing and youthful scindia, who never lost an election since he took the plunge into politics in 1971, at the age of 26, was, if anything else, a quintessential politician. as the deputy leader of the congress party in parliament, his proximity to leader sonia gandhi was unquestioned, as indeed was his loyalty to the gandhi family. it was after all rajiv gandhi who gave him the opportunity to emerge as a serious political figure by giving him the railways portfolio in his 1984 government. scindia's handling of this portfolio marked him out in a crowd of indifferent ministers. his quick grasp of the issues and managerial abilities quickly became apparent. within two years he had made a mark as a forceful and deft leader who provided the much needed burst of modernisation to the railways that has, in retrospect, helped it weather the vagaries of his successors like jaffar sharif, ram vilas paswan and mamata bannerji. but his youthful figure and his quick step pointed to his abiding interest in sports. "cricket," he once told the times of india, "is my ruling passion." despite his ministerial responsibilities, he found time for cricket and golf. he was the president of the board of control for cricket in india between 1990-1993 and loved swimming and bridge as well. there was an epic quality to scindia's estrangement from his mother, rajmata vijayaraje scindia, a leading light of the bjp. just how things stood once was indicated by an early draft of vijayaraje's will disowning her son. yet, madhavrao rode out that storm with grace and stoicism and did not feel it necessary to reveal that there had been a reconciliation in 1996 during the late rajmata's illness. despite his long political innings, scindia was not the back-slapping neta. "maharaj" was always a bit aloof, but never unfriendly. this was not just public school and oxford, but his unbeatable grip over his constituencies, guna and gwalior. he didn't need to do some things politicians have to do to survive. just how strong this hold was became evident when in 1984 lok sabha elections he humbled atal behari vajpayee, and in 1996 when he swept the election as the leader of the madhya pradesh vikas congress. upset by charges being framed against him in the hawala case, by his own government, he left the congress where he had served as union minister for civil aviation and later as union minister for human resource development. for years friendly supporters projected scindia as a potential prime minister. as sonia gandhi's deputy, he had gained a distinct edge over other wannabes like arjun singh and digvijay singh. curiously, the stamping ground of all three was madhya pradesh and scindia, despite his undoubted hold over gwalior-guna, was not quite able to extend his sway over the state party unit in the way the other two leaders have. scindia, born on march 10, 1945, was the son of the late jivajirao scindia and vijayaraje. he was married to madhavi raje in 1966 and the couple have a son, jyotiraditya, and daughter, chitrangda raje. the scindias have properties and businesses across the country and run a number of institutions all of which are being managed by jyotiraditya currently.