‘Nitin Gadkari dropped from BJP parliamentary board after RSS brass nod’
EW DELHI: The surprise decision to drop senior BJP functionary and transport minister Nitin Gadkari from the party’s parliamentary board was taken with the consent of the RSS leadership, which was annoyed with the senior minister for his propensity to make “out of turn” and colourful remarks.
According to multiple senior BJP sources, the Sangh leadership had cautioned Gadkari, a former BJP chief, against his propensity to make remarks which fetched him headlines but were used by opponents and others to cause embarrassment to the party and government at the Centre as well as the Sangh.
Disappointed by Gadkari’s failure to heed, RSS suggested, sources disclosed, to the BJP leadership that it take suitable action, including removal of the minister, who is known for his proximity to the Sangh, from the parliamentary board.
‘If Gadkari fails to read saffron mood, more action will follow’
The tough stance helped the BJP leadership, which was already exasperated by Gadkari frequently playing to the gallery, make up its mind to remove him from the party’s top decision-making body.
“Somewhere he became a prisoner of the ‘I-could-not-care-any less’ persona that he acquired because of his controversial remarks. He cultivated it as we feel, he started enjoying projecting himself as an autonomous entity on whom the regular rules did not apply,” said a source.
TOI tried to take Gadkari’s version, but his office maintained that the minister would not comment on the subject.
Sources said both BJP and the Sangh leadership are in agreement that nobody, independent of his stature, could be allowed to be an exception to the rules of organisational conduct.
While the exclusion from the parliamentary board is seen as a tough measure by many, sources said that the leadership of both RSS and BJP feel that more consequences could follow if the minister continues to misread the mood of the saffron brass.
“It is not only his statements in public, the ones that grabbed headlines. He would frequently go out of line even in private, causing discomfiture to the government and party,” a senior source said while requesting anonymity.
The assertion about Sangh being on the same page as BJP leadership vis-a-vis Gadkari flies in the face of the commentary in certain circles that action against him signalled tension between the BJP brass and Nagpur-based RSS leadership.
“Quite to the contrary, it was the RSS that had often appeared to be more anguished on this score as Nitinji would go on to make the same kind of remarks despite having been counselled not to do so,” said a senior BJP source.
Most recently, Gadkari generated headlines by saying that he wanted to quit politics as it has become “power-centric” and ceased to be an instrument of public service. As opposition parties rushed to interpret the remark in the way that suited them, many in BJP struggled to make sense of the statement, especially because the Union minister has consistently styled himself as a “pragmatic politician”.
In 2019, soon after BJP had lost the assembly polls in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and during the build-up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Gadkari said politicians who sell dreams to people but fail to make them a reality get “beaten up” by the public.
The comment, though seemingly general in nature, was promptly lapped up by the opposition to seek to embarrass BJP and the Modi government at a crucial time.
About the removal of Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan from the parliamentary board, sources said a decision has been taken that no chief minister would be made part of the body. “We now have so many chief ministers and we can’t differentiate among them,” a source said, suggesting equalisation of status among the CMs.
