Be as he may, an outsider to the elites who have been rooted since years in the nurturing ground of Lutyens Delhi, over the last few months Narendra Modi has immensely consolidated his position in these three areas: his party, his government and the RSS led clan of right wing parties, all or some together residing amidst a huge geographical area of Lutyens Delhi. So can we finally call him an insider now? Someone who operates and commands the area where he resides? Well, that can certainly be the case now, even more after his cabinet reshuffle, a bold move which sent waves across media and party lines after senior ministers were transferred and well, some junior ones were even asked to leave. So after about two years of his government, rest assured, I am of an opinion that we can call him an insider.
But how did this happen? What led to the second coming of Narendra Modi? This time though in a hemisphere which was trying to deviate away from him. Let me thus open the book of my thoughts for you, to explain what led to this major threshold getting crossed. My concern will be on the points that were incorporated to decide the whole Cabinet reshuffle, which I guess, single handedly (with of course other factors involved) transferred Narendra Modi from the position of an outsider to that of an insider. Here I have aligned the story point by point to accommodate all factors and views and to make it all the more categorical to you:
1) The Modi Self - Assessment scheme: Speculation has it that an internal assessment mechanism was set up by the Prime Minister about two months before the cabinet reshuffle took place. A scheme carefully carved out to strengthen his own position, Modi set out with a parameter based evaluation of about 80 members of parliament in the fray which included the existing minsters as well. "Performance, delivery and no out-of-turn speaking or creating unnecessary controversies for the government were on top of the PM's mind. He wanted people focused on work. Minute attention was paid to every appointment. The major outcomes of this process were: One, the ministers were judged on qualitative parameters which is and should be an apt judgement to decide on key ministries and second, Narendra Modi and under his umbrella, Amit Shah became the sole decision makers in the process consolidating their own respective positions in the government and party.
2) The RSS Angle: Nothing happens in BJP without the involvement of the extremist Right wing parties led by the group mover, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh. And aptly so, the party was involved in the cabinet reshuffle scheme, even if to a meagre extent when compared to earlier involvements. The direct impact for the same can be deciphered to some reasoning as the key ministries that RSS wanted were given to it. The ministries I am talking about are the I&B ministry, which was relieved off from Arun Jaitley and given to Venkaiah Naidu, and HRD, which was given to Prakash Javadekar; both considered to be closely aligned with the RSS.
Meanwhile, both Arun Jaitley and Smriti Irani were speculated to have not been listening to RSS. Well, the bigger question here is, will the RSS cultural hegemony prevail in these two ministries now? The answer is best left to time. The outcome of the same that adheres to this article though is that Modi was himself involved by presence or in some other way in all the meetings, hence putting his stamp on all the decisions and subsequently solidifying his position.
3) The Case of Caste: Let's say he is a man who judges on quality, but Narendra Modi, in my personal view is also a clever politician who thinks in ways beneficial for both the country and yes, his own party. And so as it turned out that the latest cabinet reshuffle had the impression of caste politics all over it. The curious and impeccable thing which I see though is how he manufactured a minister by closely amalgamating the elements of caste, factors of youth and that of the upcoming state polls, something which I will also elaborate upon in the next point. To substantiate this point though, it can be categorically pointed out that the selection of Anupriya Patel, a Kurmi from Mirzapur constituency was initiated to counter the Nitish Kumar led Kurmi inroads in Uttar Pradesh. Kurmi vote might now, to BJP's advantage, get divided among the two making Nitish Kumar fall short of a few electoral moves.
4) Standpoint of States: For a statesman, literally, states are important. And as mature as he sounds, Narendra Modi has given much attention to the states as they deserve in his latest cabinet reshuffle. Overall, this gives him brownie points as a leader as he consolidates his position not only at the center but at the state level as well. There are several examples that emerge out of the cabinet reshuffle that support the above argument as MPs from most poll bound states have been inculcated into the ministries. Three new ministers have been given positions from UP, three from Gujarat and one from Uttarakhand. All three states are scheduled to go to polls next year.
BW Reporters
The author is the Chairman & Editor-in-Chief of the BW Businessworld Group and the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the exchange4media Group
