Gadkari’s exit: Blow to BJP, boost for Modi

Every effort of embattled BJP chief Nitin Gadkari to wiggle out of the Purti quagmire has backfired and the proverbial final nail on the coffin was stuck by the I-T raids on the company stakeholders’ offices. As the negative publicity brought by its appointee became too big to be pushed under the carpet, even the all powerful RSS could not help him.
Rajnath Singh’s return could not be more spectacular. Gadkari’s term at the helm was a disaster. Revolt after revolt broke out in the party’s state units — its Karnataka situation is the worst scenario.

It was not long ago that the party’s national leadership was forced to kneel down before the Bellary brothers and revoke all disciplinary actions against them and their confidants. Late realisation of its mistake and the subsequent tough posturing before BS Yeddyurappa have resulted in its sole government in the south hanging to power by a wafer-thin majority. The Lingayat strongman enjoys considerable support among the party’s cadres and has the ability to spoil it for the saffron party.

And more than anyone else, one person stands to gain the most — Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s chance of being the party’s prime ministerial candidate got a major boost with Gadkari out of the way. Modi and Gadkari had clashed several times in the past with the pracharak CM skipping the party’s national executive meetings in protest.

The harbinger of Gadkari’s dwindling elbow room was the May conclave where the party body had to drop Modi-baiter and Gadkari loyalist Sanjay Joshi.

With an outspoken Hindutva hawk like Rajnath Singh at the helm of the party, Modi will look like a moderate (though he is anything but one). Singh’s elevation also spares Modi of worries about strengthening the party before laying siege to Delhi — the former has proven his mettle with excellent organisational skills during his previous stints.

Modi has also greatly benefitted from Rahul Gandhi’s elevation to the number two slot in the Congress. While junior’s tearjerker speech might have sent the nation reaching for tissue paper boxes, the ‘anointment’ has effectively ruled out the possibility of any leader of calibre rising to the top in near future.

Every time Rahul has tried to take on Modi politically, his rhetoric failed to scratch Modi’s image, let alone dent it. Sonia’s last best shot — maut ka saudagar (merchant of death) — boomeranged and Modi emerged stronger than ever. The recent state elections underscored the Gujarat’s CM’s upper hand in this unequal fight.

Modi’s success has been in forcing his most vehement critics to come out with praise for him through good governance. Congress leaders, civil society activists and even leading Muslim figures have turned fans.

With booming business opportunities in Gujarat proving to be too lucrative to be ignored, most countries which blacklisted him in the wake of 2002 riots have quietly backtracked, the UK being the latest to join this list. In the US too, the number of voices calling for going soft on Modi is increasing by the day.

Though kin of victims of 2002 massacres in Gujarat continue to wage their legal battles, a series of clean chits by courts have boosted Modi’s credentials.

Gadkari was a weight that was dragging the BJP down (no pun intended), and freed of that, the main Opposition party is in a better position to put its house in order and pose a credible challenge to the ruling combine in the 2014 General Elections.

(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on January 23, 2013.)

Let India, not Time, judge Manmohan

It was only a few days back that Time magazine had branded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an ‘underachiever’ on its cover. The grave fault the US magazine found with the economist PM was that he ‘refused to stick out his neck’ for the liberalisation reforms.
Well... The magazine is entitled to its opinions as it operates from a free country. We regret to tell you that majority of the 1.3 billion citizens of our country live on below $1 per day (Though according to Planning Commission that might be upscale lifestyle) and their priority is not exactly rolling out red carpet welcome to Wal-Mart and other global giants circling the Indian retail skies.
The BJP was quick to grab the new stick to beat the Centre with, but seems to be oblivious to the fact that the same magazine had described its stalwart and former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as ‘asleep at wheel’ in 2002. The main Opposition party must not forget that it is not in the best of health and is yet to catch its breath after putting out fires in its Southern base Karnataka, where a local caste strongman got the national party on its knees.
The BJP constantly uses terms such as ‘weak, puppet, indecisive’ to describe Singh but forgets that the ‘strong’ NDA prime minister was comparatively less effectual. The Parivar campaign of going ‘swadeshi’ was the first casualty when the NDA government overtook the Congress in the road to liberalisation and selling off PSUs.
While in the Opposition, the BJP was always ranting about how it would strike at terrorist camps in Pakistan if elected to power. The much-touted nuclear tests failed to stop Kargil intrusions.
When terrorists attacked Indian Parliament, the government launched the biggest ever troop deployment to the Western border in Operation Parakram, but chickened out when generals on the other side of the border threatened to use nukes.
Terrorists continued to strike with impunity and the controversial anti-terror law Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA) was used mostly for political vendetta. But the biggest blot was the Gujarat riots of 2002. In a well-planned and methodical manner, thousands were butchered while the state machinery looked the other away or acted in complicity.
And for the regional outfits, caste parties and Mao-worshippers, they have all proven their hypocritical sides by diverging from declared policies and ideologies to retain power, fatten wallets and woo vote banks. Media is a vital constituent of democracy, but it is not the last word.
The Fourth Estate is not devoid of vested interests. Most media houses have business interests and this reflects in their analysis of news. In India, the most recent example was regarding the implementation of Wage Board recommendations for journalists.
The publishing houses, who are otherwise at each others’ throats, united in publishing story after story about a grand conspiracy to bleed the industry — and never implemented the recommendations. If Singh’s hands have been tied, it’s due to coalition compulsions.
When your government’s survival is dependent on people like Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee and Karunanidhi, the elbow room available is little.
 Despite all that, Singh has steered the country through economic doldrums in different capacities. He is free of corruption (though not the same can be said about his colleagues and allies), a gentleman and a statesman of international standing. He has never responded to vicious criticism by stooping to that level.
He might have several shortcomings, but is still the prime minister and the hope for this country to ride out of economic and political storms. And those baying for his blood must come up with credible alternatives (no, not the BJP).
Let Indian public, and not Time, be the judge of its prime minister.
(This article was published as the editorial column in Postnoon on July 11, 2012)