Senior ministers such as Jaitley, Rajnath and Sushma are being attacked by BJP leaders. But Modi and Shah are silent as conspiracy theories abound.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is under siege from within. Or so it seems from the way top ministers are increasingly coming under attack from party snipers and supporters, with the Prime Minister and the BJP president looking the other way.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, to name just the three top cabinet members, are among several senior ministers who have been the target of cloak-and-dagger operations at different points of time but have been left to fend for themselves.
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Arun Jaitley
In the latest instance, BJP MP Kirti Azad fired a fresh salvo at Jaitley on Thursday, attacking him for defending corporate clients when he was a lawyer. There has been no reaction from either the party or the government.
In fact, there hasn’t been any reaction at all to Azad’s frequent attacks on Jaitley in the last three years or so after Azad was suspended from the party in 2015. BJP leaders maintain that the Darbhanga MP is on his way out of the party and there is no point in engaging with him. The explanation leaves more questions than answers.
The party and the government have been indulgent with another Jaitley-baiter: Subramanian Swamy.
He was rewarded with a Rajya Sabha berth in 2016 but has continued to throw barbs at the finance minister and other senior government functionaries who are perceived to be close to him.
In a cryptic tweet on 21 September, Swamy said: “Who provoked the French fmr President who signed Rafael deal to blurt out about Anil Ambani? The politician who planted in IE the story about film making by a French cine star. This was to hurt Namo. Who is the planter? Who else?”
The previous day, Swamy had tweeted in support of CBI director Alok Verma, who is under the scanner of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), saying that “another honest tough officer is being targeted by MoF moles because he is proceeding against the corrupt”.
Verma was known to be close to home minister Singh too.
Special director Rakesh Asthana, who has complained to the CVC about Verma’s interference in investigations, is a Gujarat cadre IPS officer and was known to enjoy the confidence of both Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.
On Wednesday, Swamy wrote to Jaitley seeking sanction to prosecute finance secretary Hasmukh Adhia, alleging that he was involved in corrupt practices and helped diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to flee India. Swamy said he would file a PIL in this regard in the Supreme Court on 4 October.
Adhia, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, has been in Swamy’s line of fire for long. Swamy earlier accused him of targeting ED joint director Rajeshwar Singh to protect former finance minister P Chidambaram in the alleged Aircel-Maxis scam.
He also suggested that the finance secretary was trying to protect Sonia Gandhi and other Congress leaders in the National Herald case and income tax matterby transferring officials who took action against them.
Swamy, BJP insiders say, is an ambitious politician and so there are explanations for his belligerence towards the finance minister and senior ministry officials. But many in the ruling dispensation are perplexed by his attack on Adhia, a Modi confidante.
The corridors of power are abuzz with speculation about Swamy’s targets and his backers in the ruling dispensation. But neither the Prime Minister nor the BJP president has sought to rein in the party MP whose statements have time and again embarrassed the government.
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Sushma Swaraj
Swaraj was trolled for the transfer of a passport officer in Lucknow for harassing an inter-faith couple in June. An exasperated external affairs minister “liked” 200 tweets containing hateful comments.
An analysis by Hindustan Times showed that 41 BJP MPs followed at least one of these accounts and Modi followed eight of them. Even Congress leaders came to Swaraj’s support but only the home minister defended her from the ruling side. The party and the government maintained a studied silence.
Rajnath Singh
Singh himself was a victim of propaganda barely three months after the NDA government had taken over in May 2014.
Following a media report about the Prime Minister scolding his son, Pankaj, for alleged impropriety, an anguished home minister issued a strong denial and vowed to quit politics if allegations against his son were proved.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement, denying the media reports while mentioning the minister’s son in it. It raised eyebrows in the BJP, with many wondering about the need for a PMO statement.
As it is, there are many conspiracy theories doing the rounds in the corridors of power, similar to those during the UPA regime in which dual power centres encouraged cloak-and-dagger politics. There is no such ambiguity about where the power lies today. And that’s why the current atmosphere of distrust and insecurity at the higher echelons of the government looks more intriguing.
Yes of course all their Assistants are their Spokespersons. Smriti Irani was one of the greatest bright eyed, bold and merciless but knowledgeable and now the meek Defence Minister.
Fully agree with the views of the commentators above (Aryan and Dr Aaand). Article totally devoid of any merit or newsworthiness. 100% clickbait. Shame on your Print portal, peddling nonsense which won’t even qualify as bazaar gossip.
That shows the bankruptcy of the author and the website which is publishing such articles based on old facts. These facts may or may not be true but the world has moved on. Moreover, people are not going to be taken in by these dirty tricks of paid journalists.
Please write/ publish articles with some ‘Content’ if you know what that means. Thanks. Made a mistake by taking the effort to read this one. It’s a disgrace that even such articles with absolutely no content get published. Hope your editors find some to read rather than just approve based on headlines.
There is a tussle going on at PMO between Gujarat cadre officers and non-Gujarat cadre officers for a long time now.