Behind row over Scindia’s visit to Rani Laxmibai memorial lies volatile mix of politics, history

Soon after his visit to the Rani Laxmibai memorial, pictures of Jyotiraditya Scindia standing with folded hands before the samadhi began doing the rounds, leading to the Opposition Congress training its guns on Scindia, its erstwhile leader.

The Madhya Pradesh Congress charged that Scindia’s visit to the samadhi of the legendary warrior queen is aimed to silence his opponents over the “betrayal of Rani Laxmibai” issue, but it would not “wash away the sins committed by his forefathers in 1857”.

Taking a jibe at Scindia, MP Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja alleged that he visited the memorial “simply for political gains of a post and a chair”.

Rejecting these charges, Scindia’s close associate Keshav Pandey defended him, saying he was inspecting the memorial site for a proposed 12-km long flyover that is envisaged to ease the traffic congestion in that area in Gwalior.

This was not the first time Scindia drew fire from the Congress over the historical matter. Soon after his defection to the BJP with his 25 loyalist Congress MLAs in March 2020, which brought down the Kamal Nath government, the Congress, while condemning his move, sough to link it with the “Scindia family’s betrayal to Jhansi ki Rani”.

Arun Yadav, former MP Congress chief, had then alleged that “It was the history of the Scindia family to backstab. First they backstabbed Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi and now the Congress party.”

Ahead of the crucial Assembly bypolls for 28 seats in October 2020, the state Congress had again launched an attack on Scindia over the historical row, raking up a Subhadhra Kumari Chauhan’s poem and quoting from Hindutva ideologue VD Sarvarkar’s writing in this regard.

Since 1957, several members of the Scindia family have been in public life in various capacities – as MLA, MP, Union minister or chief minister – from different parties including the Congress, the BJP or its erstwhile avatar Jana Sangh. And the Rani Laxmibai issue has all along haunted them.

In 2006, the then Rajasthan chief minister Vasudhara Raje, Jyotiraditya’s aunt, was shown black flags in Indore as she went to inaugurate a statue of Rani Laxmibai there. Vasundhara was also said to have ordered deletion of a paragraph of Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s poem, “Jhansi ki Rani”, from the Hindi language textbook “Shritij” for Class 10 under the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan (BSER). After the Congress returned to power in Rajasthan, the syllabus was revised but this paragraph was not reintroduced in the poem.

When Scindia was with the Congress, many senior MP BJP leaders – including CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jaibhansingh Pawaiya and Prabhat Jha – used to obliquely refer to the alleged treacherous acts of his forefathers over “betrayal of Queen of Jhansi”.

Seeking to brush aside the row over Scindia’s visit, Keshav Pandey highlighted that the Union minister was stepping up his bid for development of the Gwalior region. A four-lane elevated road on Swarnarekha nalla connecting the Information Technology and Management (IITM) complex to the Laxmibai memorial in Gwalior is one of the four projects worth Rs 514.68 crore that has been cleared on December 20 under the central road fund scheme due to Scindia’s efforts, he said.

“Had he (Scindia) not visited the Rani Laxmibai samadhi while passing through the area, he would have drawn criticism too,” Pandey said.

The row evoked mixed views from the saffron party, with some leaders saying that “Scindia should be rather appreciated for trying to wash away these stains of history that have haunted their family for decades”.

MP BJP media in-charge, Lokendra Parashar, said, “There is nothing surprising about Scindia’s visit to Rani Laxmibai’s samadhi as every person, be it a leader or a common man, must respect the sacrifices of freedom fighters. His visit to the Jhansi Queen’s samadhi is in fact worthy of appreciation.”

A senior BJP leader, however, said, “Rani Laxmibai’s samadhi was built with the efforts of the government, and the erstwhile ruler Jiwajirao had to reluctantly agree. No member of the Scindia family ever got on to the steps leading to the samadhi until Jyotiraditya’s recent visit there as they considered it might undermine their stature in their own bastion.”

He added that “If Scindia is keen on closing the chapter and washing off the past, he should tender a public apology on the issue on behalf of their family”.