What is perceived as the Bharatiya Janata Party's new experiment is, to all intents and purposes, a well-thought-out strategy to obliterate democracy, give more space to loyalists and usher in the yes-man culture to a new level. The party's recent list of the new Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee hogged the limelight because the names of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan have been dropped. The BJP habitually couches these new trials in a lacy narrative, like this time when it said the list reflects regional and social representation with names like Sarbananda Sonowal from Assam, Sudha Yadav from Haryana, K Lakshman from Telangana, BS Yeddyurappa from Karnataka, Satyanarayan Jatiya from Ujjain, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, to name a few. The Parliamentary Board and the Central Election Committee are the highest decision-making bodies in a political setup; in the BJP's case this new list is a kaleidoscopic view of the modus operandi or the working style of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
What BJP calls an experiment in regional and caste balance has now blatantly brought out its aversion and distaste for Muslims, as there is no representation from the community. The lone face, Shahnawaz Hussain, has been dropped from the Central Election Committee, making it clear that the party does not want a Muslim name at the highest table. One needs to mention that Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the only Muslim cabinet minister, is no more a part of the mantrimandal. Any possibility of a Muslim getting a ticket in future is also further diminished, and 20 per cent of the population of the country will perhaps have no voice within the BJP.
Nitin Gadkari earned the sobriquet of the Highway Man of India because of his tireless efforts in expanding roads, flyovers and highways. He was the only minister who was known to take a stand on issues in the Parliamentary Board as well as the cabinet meetings. He was also the one who tried to show the mirror to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. In 2018 he commented post the BJP drubbing in state elections that the leadership should take responsibility for the electoral loss; in August 2018 he said that the government was unable to generate jobs; in October 2018 at a TV channel function he said the BJP had over-promised and was unable to deliver. He even did what is unthinkable in the Modi-Shah regime, and thats exalting Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi to an iconic status. One of his latest jibes indicates how suffocated he felt in the present government; in Nagpur he remarked that politics is all about staying in power rather than a vehicle of socio-economic change.
Gadkari was seen challenging both Modi and Shah, and eliminating his name from the Parliamentary Board and the Central Election committee was almost like killing two birds with one stone. The message was clear: there is no place for people who assert and affirm; rather, the silent workers and sacrifical lambs ready to stick out their neck on the chopping block are rewarded — examples being Sarbananda Sonowal and Devendra Fadnavis. Axing the most performing minister in the Modi cabinet, Nitin Gadkari, from the highest decision-making body is a message to all the rebellious voices brewing within the party, indirectly telling them that merit and performance are secondary and can be easily sideastepped but if one dares to speak against the king, they will meet the same fate as Gadkari.
The new list of the Parliamentary Board and CEC in that sense is thus a moment of truth. Many say the move isn't a surprise for Chauhan, as it was long being rumoured. But what is worth introspecting is the fact that Modi Shah duo want to usher in an era with no vestigial remnants of the Vajpayee Advani era, and Chauhan is a face of that yug. How long he can retain his chief ministerial berth is also something to watch out for but one thing that seems certain is that if the BJP returns to power in Madhya Pradesh, Chauhan will not be in the CM's seat. A point worth pondering here is that if the Parliamentary Board is filled with rubber-stamps and Modi-Shah loyalists, how will the BJP differentiate itself from the Congress which is accused of the same culture of sycophancy and darbar politics.
The new Parliamentary Board and CEC list makes RSS look pocket-sized when looking at the influence exerted by Modi's BJP. The BJP aggressively pursues the core ideological issues but is not ready to blindly take dictations from its parent organisation any more when it comes to selection of members in the Parliamentary Board or CEC. Gadkari became the BJP President in 2009 as the RSS promoted him, but after the rising stature of Modi and Shah, the influence of RSS is waning when it comes to the day-to-day functioning of the BJP. What the BJP does acknowledge and cannot dismiss is the organisational potential of the saffron outfit, which helps the BJP win elections and expand its footprint at the grassroots level. The BJP has sent a clear message to the RSS as well, through the new list: “We will pursue your core ideological agendas but let us run the party the way we want.” That brings us to a million-dollar question, can the BJP look for an RSS alternative? The jury could be out on that but the era where people close to the RSS existed within the BJP to enjoy the fruits of power seems over.
Yogi Adityanath has also been dropped from the Parliamentary Board list. He might swallow this humiliation, though, as he knows he has bigger ambitions for the post of the prime minister. For that matter, none of the CMs find representation on the board. Hence Modi's BJP continues to write new rules of political grammar. As a tailpiece, the bonhomie between Nitish Kumar and Nitin Gadkari is no secret; the Highway Man helped Nitish with roads and flyovers in Bihar, and Nitish's requests to Modi for funds kept falling on deaf ears. Who knows, new backroom dynamics might be seen working between Nitish and Gadkari. Will Gadkari's ouster from the Parliamentary Board give rise to internal wranglings, or silence the rebels within BJP for ever, is something to watch out for.
The writer is a senior television anchor and consulting editor with Satya Hindi
