On August 13, Amit Malviya, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell, said that Narendra Modi has become the longest serving non-Congress prime minister of the country. He surpassed the record of his party senior, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, of 2,268 days as PM. But beating Vajpayee is not exciting enough for either Modi or his party. He has already left behind all others in the BJP and emerged as the tallest leader the sangh parivar has ever had. So the information technology cell of the BJP came up with another statistic to show that Modi had surpassed both India’s first PM, Jawaharlal Nehru, and also his daughter and former PM, Indira Gandhi. Malviya tweeted a comparative chart and wrote that PM Modi has “served for the longest time as head of an elected government”. He said that from being the chief minister of Gujarat to becoming a two-term PM, Modi has been in office for 18 years and 306 days — a total of 6,878 days — beating Nehru’s tally of 6,130 days and Indira’s count of 5,829 days.
Social media, however, caught Malviya’s jugglery. One Twitter user replied that Pawan Kumar Chamling was the CM of Sikkim from December 12, 1994 to May 26, 2019, that is, 24.4 years or 8,932 days. The Twitter user asked Malviya if he does not count Sikkim to be a part of India. The BJP IT cell boss had tried to be too clever by half by selecting only former PMs to project Modi as the greatest.
Hint of a song
There was a stage when the camp of the Rajasthan chief minister, Ashok Gehlot, was not very sure of the loyalty of all the members of the legislative assembly who were holed up at Hotel Fairmont in Jaipur. The Sachin Pilot camp, too, fuelled speculation by talking of hidden support which would come to the surface once the MLAs were freed from captivity. Gehlot, who went to the hotel almost daily, was, on a particular night, discussing strategies with his colleagues. Tired after a long day’s work, the 69-year-old CM, sitting in a chair at around 2 am, was found humming the Hindi song, “Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya/ Har fikr ko dhuyen mein udata chala gaya...”
This inspired the MLAs so much that they resolved to stay with Gehlot come what may, no matter for how long the crisis stretched. The veteran political leader was tense amid the political crisis even though he never showed any sign of surrender and resolutely led the fight from the front to save the government. But the song that flitted through his mind — it was from Dev Anand’s blockbuster, Hum Dono — suggested that he was going through the mill without any worry.
More confusion
Months have passed since the Union home minister, Amit Shah, fixed a deadline and prodded Central paramilitary forces to buy only ‘swadeshi’ products. But the ministry is still not ready with the list of such products. Ministry officials are at their wits’ end because of the confusion over what constitutes swadeshi (indigenous) and videshi (foreign) products. In the absence of a clear definition, officials are still trying to figure out if it excludes products made locally by international brands. A first attempt at the end of May to de-list non-swadeshi products had to be withdrawn as it included goods made by Indian companies. Since then, the decision-makers have been walking on eggshells.
Growing unease
The political crisis in Rajasthan, in spite of having ended well for the Congress, has triggered anxiety in other Opposition-ruled states like Punjab, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. While Punjab is better placed as the BJP has no clout there and the chief minister, Amarinder Singh, is in full command, Maharashtra and Jharkhand are feeling jittery. The first thing that Congress MLAs from both Maharashtra and Jharkhand expect from the high command are general secretaries who are actively involved in the states’ affairs.
The unease of the general secretary in charge of Maharashtra, Mallikarjun Kharge, is rising as his movements are restricted because of age and health issues. Kharge rarely visits Maharashtra and his commitment to the alliance with the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party is also in doubt. The latest allegation against him is that he cannot take everybody together. Many Maharashtra leaders have already asked for the appointment of a new and more active general secretary. Kharge anyway is tipped to replace Ghulam Nabi Azad as the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha in the coming months, making it easier for the high command to relieve him of the taxing gen-sec assignment. In Jharkhand, the in-charge, RPN Singh, has several critics who have started complaining to the Central leadership. Worse, RPN has of late created enemies in the high command structure too, making his position even less secure.
Footnote
The Karnataka BJP chief, Nalin Kumar Kateel, is trying to tame his party colleague and Lok Sabha member, Ananth Kumar Hegde, after the latter called BSNL employees “traitors”. But the fact is that several presidents before Kateel had tried in vain to control the motor-mouth. Although both Hegde and Kateel are favourites of the RSS, some BJP veterans are asking who can bell the cat, considering Hegde’s huge popularity in his Uttara Kannada constituency.
