When the young MP from Guna was made a junior minister for communication and IT during the final year of the last UPA regime, he was in a hurry to make a mark in the government. Those were uncertain days for all Congressmen as political pundits had predicted an early fall of the UPA government, thanks to the Indo-US nuke deal. His own ministry was preoccupied with issues such as 3G and number portability. Wasting no time, Scindia chose to devote his time and energy for rebranding India's postal department which remained a laggard for decades post Independence.

"I was passionate about it. Have you been to Lodhi Market post office sometime recently? The very look and feel of the place has changed altogether," he says with a sense of pride and satisfaction. Now in Udyog Bhawan, Scindia wants to bring in the same rigour and passion to transform the way exports take place and also to rebrand Indian tea for global customers. There are plans even to open branded tea outlets around the world. And Scindia is adopting the same formula which he had deployed while rebranding India Post and gained instant dividends.

SK Sinha, chief general manager of Postal Life Insurance, narrates how Scindia forced senior postal officers to personally sit at the post offices to improve services. "The modernisation of post offices was taken up on a mission mode. Unlike many other government programmes, there were strict deadlines and Scindia held regular meetings with senior officials to ensure it's on track. The concept of `change leaders' was introduced in a government set-up. The faster delivery was made a key component of the mission, and tolerance level was reduced to less than 5%," he says.

If rebranding of India Post is considered a benchmark, the bigger challenge that Scindia faces today is whether he would be able to match hiswork in the commerce ministry with that of his earlier tenure. Senior officials in the ministry, who did not wish to be named, say that Scindia's major handicap is lack of freedom within the ministry. As a junior minister, his hands are tied and he could do very little on his own to make a difference to Indian exporters or tea industry. However, Scindia, who along with other ministers of state held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on work allocation, would not like to talk on this subject.

Source: Economic Times By Shantanu Nandan Sharma Jyotiraditya Scindia: Man who revived the Indian Postal system

Scindia went to a government school and taught maths and other subjects to Class V standard under Bimori Development Block yesterday.

He was very much impressed by a student Pradeep Yadav, who instantly answered the minister's questions in maths and won the tittle of "Masterji" from him.

Scindia was also overwhelmed with English pronunciation of Roshni, a girl of nomadic Pardi tribe.

In the evening, Scindia surprised one and all after he drove a tractor at village Khyawada.

Addressing a farmers' function, he showed concern over the power cuts and said the load-shedding has hit the state's development badly.

He said that apart from load shedding, the shortage of fertilisers and seeds have compounded problems of farmers in Madhya Pradesh.

The MP from Guna, said that Centre was giving priority in the construction of roads in this region.

Scindia said that farmers were the backbone of the country, adding that their economic condition needs to be improved.

The Scindias contest either from Guna or Gwalior but two family members never contest against each other.

In the past, they could fancy winning even without moving out of the palace, but today they have to work hard as everybody else. The `Mahal factor' -- as Madhya Pradesh describes the voter's affinity -- and the surname give them an edge, which the rivals find daunting, given that many still refer to the family members as maharaja or maharani, touch their feet and bow in deference.

Young Jyotiraditya, who a few months ago spent a night at a Dalit's home in his constituency, won by a huge margin of close to 2.5 lakh votes while Yashodhara Raje's margin at 26,591 was lesser the 36,474 margin in the 2007 by-election. Raje was first elected to the MP Assembly in 1998 when she won from Shivpuri, the summer residence of the Scindias, before the BJP fielded her in a by-election in Gwalior in 2007.

In the first election Jyotiraditya contested in 2002 after the tragic death of his father Madhavrao, his margin was a massive 4.5 lakh. It came down to 86,360 in 2004 but he managed to increase it substantially five years later though six of the eight Assembly segments in Guna are represented by the BJP.

Reconciling their royal past with democracy, and having ex tended the winning streak for so long, the Scindias have done what few royal families can boast of. For over five decades, at least one member of the fam ily has represented the erst while Gwalior kingdom in Parliament. They have won as candidates of national parN ties, as Independents, and even when they floated a re gional outfit.

The family's political his tory began with the late Vijaya Raje Scindia, known popularly as Rajmata, winning from Guna in 1957. Since then, five more members of her family three children and two grandchildren have won polls from MP and Rajasthan.

Winning in MP has never been an issue as the Scindias have always contested from areas that were a part of the vast kingdom, where they are still viewed as veritable rulers by many locals.

In 1957, the Rajmata defeated V G Deshpande of the Hindu Mahasabha. The party won seats in the neighbouring areas but could not defeat the Scindia.

In 1977, the Janata Party won 39 out of 40 seats in then undivided Madhya Pradesh. The only seat it could not pocket was Gwalior where Rajmata's son Madhavrao was the candidate.

The only time a member of the family lost an election was when Vasundhara lost from Bhind in 1984. The Congress had given its best electoral performance fol lowing the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Her brother, Madhavrao Scindia, who was a Congress candidate, defeated Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Gwalior.

Source: The Indian Express Scindias still uncrowned kings, with a little sweat

THE SCINDIAS AND HOLKARS ARE WELL-KNOWN ROYAL FAMILIES OF MADHYA PRADESH. BUT FEW KNOW THAT THE STATE IS HOME TO OVER 725 PALACES AND FORTS OWNED BY DESCENDANTS OF PRINCELY STATES

Raja Saliwahan Jamnia gives new meaning to single-hand driving as he manoeuvres his black Scorpio through recently harvested fields.

Enroute from Mhow to Jamnia Fort, his ancestral abode, he waves out to villagers, greeting everyone with Jai Onkareshwar, the name of his family's ruling deity .

Princely states may be no more, but Jamnia is still addressed as raja and his wife Riteshwari as rani saheb. Dressed in olive green corduroy trousers and a mauve T-shirt, this 44-year-old `king' of a state that ruled over 86 villages is not averse to riding a tractor to plough the 200 acres of land that is now the family's main source of income. His dream is to transform the eightroom Jamnia Fort and its adjoining ruins into a heritage hotel.

Ask him why a tourist would come to Jamnia and Jamnia points to Rani Roopmati ka Mahal in Mandu, 14 kms away, the nearby lake and Sholay-like landscape around. "We'll offer a horse safari to Mandu, water sports, fishing and an experience that's much more exciting than what Rajasthan offers." His wife, who heads an NGO for tribals in the area, adds, "One can study the tribal culture in this land of the Bhil tribals." A couple of hundred kilometres away, at Amla in Ratlam district, Kunwar Raghvendra Singh has already converted part of his family's ancestral palace into an 11room heritage property Brushing .

aside teething troubles like lack of power, water and approach roads, Singh says he got some 300 visitors to his property last year. A hundred kilometres from Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal, Maharaja Bhanu Prakash Singh of Narsinghgarh is getting ready to sign off the 300-odd room fort built in 1685 to a hospitality company which will convert , it into a palace hotel.

These lesser-known royalties now smell an opportunity in heritage tourism, a business that is thriving in adjoining Rajasthan. The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation, which turned profit-making in 2004-05 after 25 years in the red, is keen to help.

"Forts and palaces are enduringly fascinating. Everyone wants to experience the world of the rajas, even if for a day There is vast potential for heritage tourism in Madhya Pradesh," says Ashwani Lohani, MPTDC managing director.

The MPTDC too is developing two such properties it owns -- the Laxmipur Palace in Panna spread over 13 hectares and Govindgarh Fort that once belonged to Maharaja Martand Singh of Rewa.

So why has MP lagged behind in wooing tourists to heritage sites? Lack of infrastructure, connectivity and awareness are the major reasons for this. Unlike in Rajasthan, the rulers in Madhya Pradesh, barring a couple, were not rich. As a result, when privy purses were abolished, they sold off their lands and moved to the cities where they now live as commoners.

Source: Hindustan Times Rising from the ruins

In May 1968, Madhavrao and his family returned to India for good... And Vijayaraje was keen that her young and charismatic son should follow in her political footsteps.

Madhavrao attended the local citizens' bodies, invited local notables home and even went to a Freemason's meeting...in an effort to become a part of Gwalior life.

His passion, of course, remained cricket... `Through cricket, Madhavrao was able to strike a chord with the people,' says Shareef Ahmed (his former coach and teacher)... `Cricket taught him many valuable lessons that would come in handy later in life... He learned not just how to lead a team off and on the field but also how to accept victories and defeats in life.'

A family emergency
On the morning of July 6, 1975, nearly two weeks after she had gone underground, the Rajmata got into a car, setting out again, this time for Nepal.

`THE BASIC TENETS OF THE CONGRESS -- SECULARISM, LIBERTY AND A PROGRESSIVE IDEOLOGY -- WERE IN LINE WITH HIS OWN WAY OF THINKING. IT WAS A PERFECT FIT.'

But she never completed the journey The original plan had been for ...

her to go to a crowded marketplace and court arrest. This was aban doned after local Jan Sangh leaders pleaded that it would be impossible to produce a sympathetic crowd given the atmosphere of fear that prevailed. Nevertheless, Vijayaraje was confident that when the people of Gwalior heard that their Rajmata had been taken away by the police, there would be protests in the streets.

In fact, nothing of the sort happened. Indira Gandhi's Emergency had changed all the old rules.

Source: Hindustan Times The gentleman prince

• Choosing the Congress

• The flight he missed

• Rajiv's minister

• Cricket till the end

His Literary Tastes
Scindia had a deep interest and commitment to literary activities. Thus instead of restricting his visits to political meetings, he was often the guest of honor in literary and cultural programs. On such occasions people used to request him to recite a poem after his formal lecture was over. He always used to oblige people by reciting choice poems or Urdu shayari.

Ministerial stints
A nine-term member of the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia never lost an election since 1971, when he won for the first time from Gwalior at the age of 26. He contested as an independent with the support of the Jan Sangh, a party that his family had for long patronised. In 1977, he switched to the Congress Party despite resistance from his larger family, and won the Gwalior seat a second time. In order to avoid a direct contest with his mother, he later shifted to the neighbouring constituency of Guna. But in 1984, he was nominated the Congress candidate in Gwalior as a last-minute manoeuvre to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party's Atal Behari Vajpayee, and won by a massive margin. Since then Scindia contested from either Gwalior or Guna and won on each occasion.

Ministerial stints
The 1984 election brought Scindia his first experience as a Minister. He made his mark as an excellent administrator during his stint as Railways Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Ministry. He is credited with the modernisation and computerisation of Indian Railways and with maintaining the most cordial and professional relationship with his managerial cadres.

Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao made him Minister for Civil Aviation. He faced a turbulent period of agitation by the staff of the domestic carrier, Indian Airlines, and as part of a strategy of disciplining the workforce he leased a number of aircraft from Russia. Early in 1992 one of these aircraft crashed, though without any loss of life, and Scindia promptly submitted his resignation. Although not known to be too finicky about such notions as ministerial accountability, the prime minister accepted his resignation. Scindia was later reinducted into the Cabinet in 1995 as Minister for Human Resource Development.

Rebellion and return
In 1996, he along with Arjun Singh and other Congress dissidents had the opportunity to be part of the United Front (U.F.) government at the Centre. Although his Madhya Pradesh Vikas Congress was part of the U.F., Scindia himself opted to stay out of the Cabinet. His first priority obviously was to return to the Congress and resume his old political bonds. His opportunity came when Narasimha Rao was ousted as Congress president after a string of indictments in corruption cases.

Scindia's political role and influence within the Congress party grew rapidly and he was seen as a potential prime ministerial candidate. His tragic demise in a plane crash demolished many hopes.

His son, Jyotiraditya Scindia is a Member of Parliament elected to the seat that he held. His daughter is married to the Crown Prince of Kashmir.

He was the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India from 1990 to 1993.