Opinion: Will Milind Deora's exit eclipse Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Nyay Yatra?

Milind Deora’s exit from the Congress party has marked an end of close family ties between the Deoras and the Gandhis. Much like Jyotiraditya Scindia, RPN Singh, Jitin Prasada, Ashok Tanwar, and others, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi seemed to make no effort to retain Milind Deora, who was once a close friend and business associate of Rahul Gandhi.

Deora was reportedly upset over the Congress Party's failure to retain the Mumbai South seat for him. His second grievance was his appointment as a ‘joint treasurer’ in the All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretariat. He was reportedly miffed that he was bracketed with Vijay Inder Singla as a joint treasurer when the initial offer was to have him as a co-treasurer with Ajay Maken. Another close aide of Rahul Gandhi, Kanishka Singh, was also offered the post of joint treasurer, but Singh reportedly turned it down without making a big issue about it.

AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge reportedly remained unperturbed when he received reports of Milind’s disillusionment. Instead of cajoling or employing intermediaries, Kharge, said to have wondered how he could tell Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) seat-sharing arrangements to bench its sitting MP Arvind Sawant, who had defeated Milind twice in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary polls.

Faced with indifference, Milind wrote in a post on X, “Today marks the conclusion of a significant chapter in my political journey. I have tendered my resignation from the primary membership of @INCIndia, ending my family’s 55-year relationship with the party. I am grateful to all leaders, colleagues and karyakartas for their unwavering support over the years.”

The 47-year-old’s reminder of a 55-year relationship with the party [read Gandhis actually] is not without significance and is likely to bring back a lot of memories.

After all, it was Milind’s father, Murli Deora, who had discovered Sonia Gandhi as ‘the real boss’ way back in 1985 when Sonia was merely the Prime Minister’s wife.

Murli Deora had then told Rajiv Gandhi in jest that he was “like the Duke of Edinburgh” and Sonia Gandhi was “the real boss.”

Rajiv and Sonia had inaugurated the Golden Hour Project, a radio frequency ambulance service in memory of Indira Gandhi in 1985 in Mumbai. Sonia, averse to politics then, reluctantly agreed to launch the project on one condition — she would not speak at the event.

But Murli, a close family friend and head of the Bombay regional Congress, then whispered to Rajiv, insisting that Sonia say a few words. However, Rajiv, not realising that the microphone was on, told Murli: “You will get an instant sack.”

While everyone present at the event had a hearty laugh, Murli passed on the scissors to Sonia and told Rajiv that he was like the Duke of Edinburgh, she (Sonia) was “the real boss”.

This anecdote and several others were part of a coffee-table book brought out by Murli’s wife Hema and son Milind.

Titled 'Under The Street Light', the pictorial book is a collection the Deoras have gathered over nearly half a century. Apart from anecdotes and some rare photographs, the book features articles by the former President of Iceland Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, corporate veteran Ashok Ganguly, industrialist Adi Godrej, former HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, Dr Farokh E Udwadia, and others.

Though, Sonia was not the first Gandhi that Murli tried to persuade to speak at an event.

After Indira Gandhi lost the 1977 elections, most senior Congress leaders from Maharashtra abandoned her, believing that her political career had come to an end. Murli Deora had another reason to quit Indira’s side, as it was rumoured that Sanjay Gandhi did not like him.

Risking his political career, the businessman and politician sided with Indira.

Murli organised a high-level meeting at Mumbai’s Taj Hotel to get the beleaguered leader to interact with the captains of industry. Indira was overwhelmed. When she was requested to speak, the former Prime Minister said: “I am out of practice.”

Murli then told Indira: “Please say hello and goodbye.”

She replied: “I do not believe in saying goodbye, but as the French say, ‘ bientôt (see you soon)'.”

Murli Deora voluntarily resigned from the Manmohan Singh government in July 2011 on health grounds. He passed away in November 2014. However, months before his death, the Congress under Sonia gave him a Rajya Sabha renomination despite his failing health. The seat eventually went to the BJP-Sena combine, which was in power in Maharashtra for the next five and a half years.

Incidentally, actor-turned-politician Govinda had met Sonia Gandhi for the first time when she visited Mumbai in 1998 at a party hosted by the Deoras. The actor later became a Congress MP.

In the context of the close family ties and association between the Deoras and Gandhis, Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh appeared a bit out of depth when he accused Milind of becoming part of a ‘design’ to divert attention and media headlines away from Rahul Gandhi’s 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' that began today (January 14).

Jairam has been quoted in the media as saying, “This whole thing [Milind’s exit] was a farce he enacted. The timing was planned by Modi to dampen the headlines on the yatra. We did not feel his presence. We will not feel his loss either, unlike his father,” Ramesh said.