RAJESH PILOT (1945-2000)
A boy born to a poor Gujjar family used to cut grass from the great lawns around New Delhi's India Gate monument, to feed his family's buffaloes. He supplied milk in little cans to VIP bungalows where ministers and Members of Parliament were ensconced. In the end, he came to occupy one of the bungalows himself, as a youthful stalwart of the Congress Party.
This boy-who-studied-under-the-streetlamps-made-good story was no myth. It was lived by Rajesh Pilot, who died when a jeep he was driving collided with a Rajasthan Roadways bus on 11 June, robbing his party of a rare breed of a leader. Pilot, who took his name after service in the Indian Air Force, was a national leader of India who was unique because he had dynamism, integrity, as well as a mass base.
In a moribund party given to a culture of sycophancy before the altar of dynasty, Pilot provided a fresh breeze. He spoke his mind, knowing that while the short-term exigencies of inter-personal rivalry would deny him the positions he wanted, the long term turn-of-wheel would be in his favour. Unfortunately, he was not to live long enough for the wheel to turn.