A cloak-and-dagger politics is being played out in the Narendra Modi government.
There are three prominent Indian politicians from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stable who were never close to Modi even before he became the premier. There was no love lost for these three as far as Modi was concerned.
These are: Sushma Swaraj (currently the foreign minister), Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje, chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively. Thirteen months ago when Modi became the prime minister, it would have suited Modi perfectly if these political rivals were to be cut down to size.
Now a situation has arisen wherein Modi is in a position wherein he is with a whale of a chance to expend each of his three political rivals. But ironically Modi has reached such political crossroads where he is perhaps no longer in a situation to order the political execution of his political rivals. At a time when Swaraj and Raje were facing the worst in their respective political careers, Chouhan has barged in as the newest political scapegoat not only for the opposition but also for Modi.
Modi is in a position to expend all three and stamp his authority within the BJP. But he is unable to take this route. But he is actually struggling to do just the contrary. And he has ample reasons to do that. Expending Swaraj and Raje would mean that his government at the Centre is unable to control things. Chouhan is right now even a better soft target but Modi the astute politician is holding his horses. Why?
Politics is an amazing art where an enemy’s enemy is a friend but a friend can sometimes be greater enemy covertly than a known enemy. Confused? You will understand it better if you look at it in the Indian context and have a close look at India’s biggest news story in the past few days — the Vyapam scam. Vyapam is a Hindi acronym for Professional Examination Board of Madhya Pradesh, a state ruled by the BJP. Many things have gone haywire for Modi in past few weeks but nothing has gone as terrible as the Vyapam scam. It has posed a much bigger threat to Modi than anything else that has gone haywire for him. India is not new as far as scams are concerned. But Vyapam is far different, as it constitutes a killer scam.
In the history of Scam India, no other scam comes anywhere close. Here is a scam where over 46 people associated with it have died and well over a half of this number comprises suspects and witnesses constitute those who died under mysterious circumstances.
The scam has unraveled for last one decade and many important BJP leaders, including Ram Naresh Yadav, the Governor of Madhya Pradesh, are in the thick of this scam. His own son has died mysteriously. Modi, who began his prime ministerial innings a little over 13 months ago with a promise that he won’t himself indulge in any scam nor would allow any scams to happen, finds himself at the wrong side of the stick now. Scams are tumbling out from all nooks and corners and Modi is the most affected party even though, technically speaking, he himself has done nothing wrong. And yet, Modi, the perceived strongman of the BJP, is hardly in a position to wreak vengeance on his known political rivals within the BJP. Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, is the best example of this.
His political career was threatened after the MP Professional Examination Board turned into a killer scam. The turning point in the scam came when Akshay Singh, a 38-year-old gutsy reporter of India’s major journalistic outfit India Today, died within a few minutes after he interviewed family members of a Vyapam scam-associated girl who had died in mysterious circumstances last year.
Chouhan spoke the language of the opposition and pre-empted the opposition by seeking an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the scam and all the deaths associated with it. Chouhan’s act goes contrary to the central leadership of the ruling BJP articulated by Home Minister Rajnaath Singh who rejected a CBI inquiry into the Vyapam scam.
This is where the murky politics within the BJP comes to the fore. Chouhan, incidentally was one of the biggest detractors of Modi and many saw in him as a better prime ministerial candidate than Modi. Chouhan realized that by rejecting a CBI probe into the Vyapam scam, the central leadership was actually harming his own political interests and that is why, without consulting the central leadership, he announced his decision to accede to the opposition demand for a CBI probe into the scam.
He was naturally aware that the Supreme Court was due to hear a petition on July 9 by prominent politicians, including senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh seeking a probe into the scam by CBI, which is monitored by the apex court.
Chouhan has deliberately gone against the stated line of the central leadership of the party only because he saw in the BJP’s refusal of a CBI probe into the scam as a covert attempt by the Modi dispensation to finish off his political career.
The Chouhan act must be seen as an emphatic display of power play within the BJP. Political players who are not well disposed to Modi are finally rearing their heads. Watch this space!
