Digvijaya Singh said on Tuesday that the turn of political events in Madhya Pradesh has proved that Jyotiraditya Scindia was using the Congress party’s strength and ideology for fulfilling his personal ambitions.

Criticising Scindia was sacrilege in the Congress not only because of his own stature but also because of his personal friendship with Rahul Gandhi.

Even while resigning as chief minister, Kamal Nath restrained himself while blaming the “Maharaj” for the fall of his government. He avoided making any personal attack on the young leader whose father Madhavrao Scindia was his competitor in state politics.

But Congress leaders are shedding the inhibition after the installation of Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the state.

Digvijaya has taken the lead by writing an open letter to the people of Madhya Pradesh about Scindia’s betrayal.

He wrote in the open letter: “Scindia’s decision to join BJP indicates that he wanted to employ the struggle and the ideological commitment of Congress supporters for his own personal gains and power. As long as the Congress could guarantee power, he stayed with the Congress. When the prospects became bleak, he crossed over to the BJP.”

The Congress posted an old video on its Twitter handle which shows Scindia speaking about Shivraj Singh Chouhan: “His hand is full of blood. He can’t wash it, it is impossible.” Scindia was referring to the Vyapam scam in which more than 50 people mysteriously lost their lives while the investigations were going on.

Jyotiraditya Scindia AP

Chouhan, who was sworn in on Monday, proved his majority on Tuesday in the absence of the Congress MLAs in the Assembly. The exercise was conducted on after issuing the notification for calling the Assembly session at 12.07am on Tuesday.

The Congress members chose not to attend; Kamal Nath wondered what the hurry was to take the trust vote under the abnormal circumstances when the nation was in lockdown owing to the coronavirus scare. Most of the Congress MLAs were in their constituencies.

Scindia, a bitter critic of Chouhan, hailed his ascendance to the chief minister’s post, tweeting: “I shall stand by you in the path of development and progress.”

Digvijaya chose the occasion to rip into Scindia’s hypocrisy, saying: “He auctioned the mandate of the people. Auctioning the pride of your own house is not done in the quest of respect from others. You don’t burn down your own house while pretending to save it.”

Contending that Scindia had betrayed all Indians who are struggling to save the country from the Modi-Shah duopoly, Digvijaya wrote: “Today Congress politics is not just about power. Today Congress ideology is confronting the Sangh ideology. These two ideologies visualise India differently.

“The future of India now depends on the victory of one of these ideologies. That is why the loss of the Congress government has pained not just Congress workers, but all those common citizens who are struggling against the hegemony of the RSS philosophy. These people never expected any direct benefit from the Congress Government. They supported Congress because the country today faces an ideological dilemma.”

Asserting that a true Congressman will never surrender or sell his soul to Modi-Shah, Digvijaya said: “There are efforts to give semblance of respectability to Scindia’s ideological betrayal. It is being said that Kamal Nath and Digvijaya squeezed him into a corner and he was suffocated. Such people do not know the Congress history. They forget that the Congress in Madhya Pradesh has always been a coalition of personalities.

“In ten years of my chief-ministership, the party had stalwarts like Arjun Singh, Shyama Charan Shukla, Vidya Charan Shukla, Shankar Dayal Sharma, Madhavrao Scindia, Motilal Vora, Kamal Nath, Sriniwas Tiwari… who had a strong public base and support. Together, everyone co-existed to claim their space within the party and also worked to make the party stronger.”

He declared that leaders and workers dedicated to the Congress ideology would fight against RSS philosophy with all their might along with the millions of people who believe in constitutional values and progressive politics.