Some time back I wrote in an article that Amit Shah’s absence from limelight looks very conspicuous. The man who was all in action, drawing all the attention, suddenly vanished from public glare. Rather more often we see UP CM in the news channels.
Look at the following two pictures carefully, it speaks a lot. The first picture after JP becomes BJP president and the 2nd picture when Amit Shah was BJP President and Rajnath Sing HM. See the seating position, you will understand a lot. In the first picture Amit Shah, the most trusted lieutenant of Modi sitting far from Modi possibly for the first time after a long gap. The usual charm and the smile missing.
In the entire episode of Corona virus pandemic, we have hardly seen him or heard from him. Amidst 21 days lock down Govt forms ministerial-level committee to resolve supply-chain issues. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is heading the committee which wouldn’t have been a possibility even 6 months back.
Cabinet ministers given charge of each district amid 21-day lockdown. Modi assigned each Cabinet minister to a minimum of 15 districts to obtain direct updates from local administrations, covering all the districts of the country.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh has charge over 20 districts in Uttar Pradesh, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman of 13 Andhra districts and 9 from Tamil Nadu. External Affairs minister S Jaishankar is in charge of 23 districts of West Bengal, commerce minister Piyush Goyal has 20 districts in Tamil Nadu and transport minister Nitin Gadkari 18 districts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai. Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar is in charge of remaining Maharashtra districts and Andaman & Nicobar, while Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has districts in his home state Odisha entrusted to him. Madhya Pradesh’s districts have been divided between three ministers. We do not find Home Minister’s name in the list.
Are these purely incidental ? Or it speaks of a story. sometime back I read in a book that the secret service agents are taught that there is nothing called incidental. If you happen to see the same car twice or bump on the same guy twice, you better cover ass.
It seems very clear there is some design. Home Minister’s absence from public glare is by design. There could be multiple reason for the same.
Angle 1: Looking into the massive CAA+NRC backfire, he is kept out of limelight as a cooling off and strategic measure. Internationally also there has been great pressure on India for CAA and Article 370 abrogation. Amit Shah is a very valuable asset for BJP. His service and expertise would be required in a big way for upcoming elections in WB, Bihar and UP. However after debacle in Delhi election and CAA+NRC backfire government needs some time to get the situation under control. As such Amit Shah is being asked to operate from background and avoid any fresh controversy. Meanwhile Modiji would arrange for damage repair. And Amit Shah will come to forefront at the right time.
This argument sounds OK, but then we do not understand why the UP CM is not kept out of limelight. He also took very tough stand on CAA+NRC protesters. He is in limelight very too often inspite of not being part of national cabinet.
Angle 2: After scrapping of Article 370 and Triple Talaq ban Amit Shah took an unassailable lead in the power equation. An opinion was in the forming that Amit Shah is no longer in Modiji’s shadow and he is ready to be the contender for the top seat. It seems the hardliner faction was showing keen interest in projecting him as the next PM. The difference of opinion between the PM and the HM on NRC put oil in the fire. People could smell some kind of power struggle in the offing, a potent danger for MP Modi’s grip on the party. Knowing Amit Shah’s capability, clout, and command within the party rank and file, this could be a genuine fear. As such after sad demise of Arun Jaitely the power equation has heavily tilted towards Amit Shah, for not having any other cabinet minister to balance the tilt in Modi’s favour should there be any power tussle. In his first term the power equation was well distributed, Amit Shah not being part of the cabinet, Arun Jaitley being on his side, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari kept at a distance. But in 2nd term Amit Shah being the HM, the power equation took sea change 1:1 with the other cabinet ministers not having any strong clout to interfere. It seems that the new arrangement has been made to address the problem and to bring greater balance in the situation. 1. New BJP President has been appointed., 2. The National Security Adviser provided a larger role, 3. HM put in safer distance cutting off from lime light. 4. Defense Minister brought to closer proximity but keeping at safer distance, 5. Bringing Jogi in to the limelight and last last but not the least PM leading from the front on all accounts. Bringing Jogi to limelight could be dummy ploy to counter balance as well to dissuade and confuse the hardliners.
Politics is a very treacherous game, where you can not trust anyone blindly even if he is your son or father. History is full of such incidents. Akbar fought against Jahangir, Aurangzeb imprisoning Shah Jahan. In ancient history Ajatashatru (Ajātasattu; 492 to 460 BCE or early 4th century BCE) imprisoned his father Bimbisara.
However its too early to make any conclusion looking in to very long trusted association of the duo. We need to wait how things unfurl in times to come.
This article has been written in the capacity of independent analyst. I feel it would be important to make the ground clear based on which my analogy and analysis has been made.
- Not being limelight means that his actions or remarks are not being highlighted, telecasted, or spoke about by the media, or he is missing form picture frame, or even if is there in the picture the camera is not focused on him.
- Not being in limelight does no way mean that he is sitting idle or he is not functioning in the normal way. He could be working as hard as always.
- It doesn’t mean that his commitment to the nation or to the party has gone down in any manner.
- Being away from limelight could be a self imposed call or a strategic decision.
- One of my friend pointed out that he may not be keeping well. It would be sad if true. I wish him good health for years to come so that he can keep himself dedicated to the service of the nation.
The fact remains that Amit Shah is immensely talented in organisational ability, in fact he is a genius on the subject. Modiji, the party and the nation needs his service in a positive manner, I repeat in a positive manner. Well a lot of Amit Shah’s success is because of having a great Leader like Modi. You can not make a bad / ordinary product successful no matter how much you spend and whichever advertisement agency or model you hire. The Delhi election result is a big proof. You have to have a good product to build around it. Arrogance also might have cost it dearly. Poor handling of Delhi Riot and Nizamuddin Markaz episode didn’t help either. In both the case the NSA had to swing in to action, which was actually in the domain of HM. Of course I do not have any way to know whether the task were assigned to him or not, or looking in to the sensitivity of the issue he was asked not to handle the same.
However if there's a power tussle between the two as I doubt, it would be most unfortunate. Modiji had all his trust, confidence and hope pinned on him. Amit Shah was also shaping up well. It would be loss to both if my doubts come true.
People need to understand that as a nation head one can not be very rigid. A big and powerful country like India also has to acknowledge international opinion. India government took two batches of European MPs to visit Kashmir. It is not always advisable neither necessary to go for head on collision or confrontation particularly for a nation with so much diversity. There is always better way to resolve conflict without compromising on basics.
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