After the storm, await the clean-up

The Modi typhoon which hit India last week, sweeping out of its way the most stubborn political resistance, checked only by two strong female chief ministers — J Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu and Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal — as also Naveen Patnaik in Odisha, has already claimed its first casualty in Bihar.

Nitish Kumar, the Bihar Chief Minister who had always being prickly about Narendra Modi and ended his 17-year-old alliance with the NDA over his being named the BJP prime ministerial candidate, had no option but to submit his resignation following his party’s rout in the Lok Sabha polls. The two paltry seats that the JD(U) ended up with, and the precarious status of his own government propped up by four Congress MLAs, left Kumar with little choice.

Over Sunday and Monday, a high voltage political drama raged in Patna where Nitish’s resignation nipped in the bud the brewing revolt in his party, with reports that the BJP was trying to split the JD(U) by enticing more than a third of Nitish’s MLAs. Despite demands to withdraw his resignation, Nitish stuck to his guns, and this just might be able to save the JD(U) government. By his smart move, he also put party chief Sharad Yadav in his place; the latter has been critical of Nitish as he was against leaving the NDA and must be hurting terribly over the Cabinet portfolio he could have had in the new government!

In Chennai too, another drama played out, mercifully for a brief bit, within the even bigger loser of this election — the DMK. MK Stalin, who led the party’s campaign and is now boss after the expulsion of elder brother MK Alagiri, made a small attempt to take on the blame for the DMK coming a cropper in this election where arch rival Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK swept 37 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu. For a fleeting instant he resigned as party treasurer and then withdrew the resignation with lightning speed!

Meanwhile, in Delhi hectic parleys are on to decide the shape and contours of the new government. Even as seniors within the BJP such as LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj are giving the Prime Minister designate some tough moments, the BJP’s top brass has been busy exchanging pleasantries with parties outside the NDA fold. Chief ministers such as Jaya and Patnaik need to be kept humoured as they will certainly come in handy when the new government weaves its way through the Rajya Sabha where the NDA lacks the muscle to push through crucial legislations. Even though joint sessions of the two Houses can be convened to get over this problem, Modi will certainly get immense satisfaction in showing the Congress, and the nation, that despite his massive mandate and a very strong NDA, he would have cordial relations with State governments.

Here, Jaya gets top honours; so both Modi and BJP president Rajnath Singh returned her initial courtesy, and called to congratulate her on her impressive victory in Tamil Nadu, with Modi promising her total co-operation in matters pertaining to Tamil Nadu. Patnaik too has said: “We will be positive towards the Centre, and hope that it would respond to the genuine demands of Odisha.”

The only significant non-NDA Chief Minister — apart from Nitish of course — missing from this bonhomie is Mamata Banerjee. The exchange between her and Modi — remember the bit about tigers, donkeys and butchers — was too acrimonious to be forgotten so soon. Celebrating her victory, Mamata, who got 34 out of 42 seats in West Bengal, said its people had rejected the “maligning campaign” against her party and reposed confidence in her.

Coming to the formation of the Cabinet, it is reassuring to know from the grapevine that Arun Jaitley who lost the election from Amritsar, will most probably become the Finance Minister, if not the External Affairs Minister. Dalal Street has been clamouring for him. Why he did not contest from Gujarat, Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh, or even UP, where Amit Shah had supposedly assured him victory, remains the mystery of this election.

Against the majority of straightjacketed BJP leaders such as Rajnath Singh, MM Joshi, or even Sushma Swaraj, who had infamously made that comment about the Delhi rape victim being a “ zinda laash ” (living corpse), Jaitley is modern, suave, articulate in both English and Hindi and can be a huge asset to any government.

Of course he is already a Rajya Sabha member and can be inducted into the Cabinet without much ado, but given the background of the BJP having constantly taunted outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his inability to win a Lok Sabha seat, the BJP would do well to put up Jaitley from Vadodara, which Modi will be vacating, despite winning it with a record margin of over 5.7 lakh votes. There can’t be a safer seat in India than that one! Amit Shah’s name is being mentioned for Vadodara, but surely the all-powerful Shah, who delivered an unimaginable 73 seats out of 80 from UP to the NDA, doesn’t need the stamp of an MP!

As the euphoria of the spectacular win fades into the background, and the Modi government gets into the saddle, it faces the gargantuan task of shaking free the governance mechanisms of this country from the deep morass into which they have slipped. This task requires not so much glib and articulate politicians who can win elections but intelligent, efficient and dynamic persons who can cut through the maze of bureaucratic hurdles, take decision and deliver results. Often such people are relegated to the backrooms as they simply lack the skills of political harakiri. Arun Shourie is one such excellent resource the BJP has. His name is already doing the rounds; he is a modern, liberal and learned soul, with an additional qualification to boot — personal integrity, an endangered quality in today’s political world.

One does hope that Modi manages to rope in people like Shourie, apart from accommodating those who have gone bleating to the RSS to get berths in his Cabinet! The Nagpur powerhouse of course had a big role in the choice of Modi, and has recently been at pains to clarify that it will not interfere and Modi will have a free hand in choosing his Cabinet. We shall know soon enough…

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