The smile on BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s face has become just a bit wider. Although in politics nothing is done till it is done, it is now taken for granted that Gadkari may be given a second term.
The issue is not expected to come up at the party’s national executive committee meeting in Mumbai later this month. But it will have to be dealt with by a national council session before Gadkari’s term—and the year—is out. The opposition party’s conclaves are notorious for not focusing on important party matters, so this time too it will train its guns on the upa’s failures and come back satisfied, without bothering to discuss its own mess. The BJP perhaps believes not discussing its problems will make them disappear.
Given the recent string of setbacks, controversies, embarrassments and infighting in the party, why would Gadkari be given a second term? To which Gadkari could well answer—“Mere paas RSS hai.”
Just look at the recent setbacks for the BJP. The report of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran has suggested that Gujarat CM Narendra Modi can be legally proceeded against in the Gulberg massacre case; the CBI has (rightly) said that L.K. Advani, along with others, must be tried for conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid, and former BJP president Bangaru Laxman has been convicted for taking a bribe. As if these were not enough, BJP’s senior leaders blamed Gadkari for the fiasco in the Jharkhand Rajya Sabha poll when the party initially supported money-powered “independent” Anshuman Mishra, and then dropped him for S.S. Ahluwalia—only to see its candidate defeated.
But more dangerous for Gadkari are the flags of revolt raised by regional satraps. By his own admission, the BJP president has not been on talking terms with the Gujarat CM since the last national executive committee in Delhi, which a petulant Modi did not attend. Karnataka’s B.S. Yediyurappa tried to up the ante several times. And now even a somewhat lesser mortal like Vasundhararaje in Rajasthan has forced Gadkari to back off from his support to her rival Gulabchand Kataria.
There are other problems too. Gadkari and Sushma Swaraj have publicly crossed swords; Arun Jaitley and Swaraj do not see eye to eye, and veteran L.K. Advani is still plodding and plotting away to return to relevance.
Why then would the RSS be keen for Gadkari to get a second term in the top party position? The short answer is: because he does its bidding, and with no support base of his own, he cannot become too big for his shoes. Possibly, what RSS fears most is becoming dispensable.
Narendra Modi cannot be trusted. After all, didn’t he make RSS and even the BJP party structure irrelevant in Gujarat? Sushma Swaraj is an effective speaker, popular with the middle classes, and a Lok Sabha member to boot. She may do her own thing if made the party boss. All this besides, she is not RSS. As for Arun Jaitley, the Sangh may not be confident of being able to handle this clever lawyer-leader. Gadkari is safe.
Neena Vyas is former associate editor of The Hindu; E-mail your columnist: neenavyas AT yahoo.com
