As the government and Bharatiya Janata Party struggle to contain the Lalit Modi controversy, it has become clear that Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has emerged as the chief crisis-manager for the ruling dispensation. 

BJP insiders cite two specific developments that indicate how Singh has become an unintended beneficiary of the crisis. First, the controversy shows that Singh remains the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's most trusted man in the government. It was the Home Minister with whom RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat chose to have a telephone call when the controversy broke out on June 14.

According to BJP officials, it was only after the Bhagawat's conversation with Singh that both the government and the BJP came out in support of the beleaguered External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who helped fugitive businessman Lalit Modi obtain UK travel documents even though Indian authorities have impounded his passport. The first person to declare his backing for Swaraj was Singh himself. “We want to make it clear that whatever she has done is right," he said. "We justify it and the government completely stands by her.”

Everyone falls in line

Party insiders say it was this conversation that forced Amit Shah to follow suit. Shah’s statement came soon thereafter:
“The matter is clear. Lalit Modi had said his wife is suffering from cancer and sought help. She said if British rules permit, then he should be helped. There is no need for any uproar. There is no issue of moral grounds.”

Second, the manner in which Singh brought Swaraj and Jaitley to the table on June 16 and the way he led the finance minister to speak in defence of the external affairs minister also indicated this shift in the central axis within the ruling dispensation. This truce between the intra-party rivals was effected at a closed-door meeting in the home minister's North Block office.

The BJP insiders feel that the controversy has not weakened Swaraj alone: it has also put Jaitley on shaky ground. The finance minister’s discomfiture was apparent in the press conference which he addressed jointly with Singh soon after their meeting.

No one in the party could miss the point at which Jaitley’s face became stiff as he chose not to answer a question about the tweet by BJP MP Kirti Azad that claimed that the controversy had been set off by an “asteen ka saanp", a snake, suggesting an internal conspiracy.

Anyone who saw the press conference also noticed the smile on the face of Rajnath Singh as Jaitley tried to duck the question regarding Azad’s tweet and said, “Ask the next question.”

The BJP insiders agree that Jaitley’s enormous influence in the government has been possible only because he has thrown in his lot so closely with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.  It wasn't so long ago that Singh appeared to be battling a campaign to sideline him  Last August, soon after the formation of the Modi government,  BJP circles were rife with a rumour that Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj Singh had been called in for a personal audience by Modi and ticked off for “improper conduct”. He is alleged to have taken bribes for handing out police postings in Uttar Pradesh. This forced the home minister to take up the matter with the RSS brass and complain about that these whispers had been set off by a “senior minister”.

Though no one in the government or the party revealed who this “senior minister” was, Rajnath Singh is thought to have been held in some suspicion in the government ever since.

The present crisis, it is widely believed in the BJP circles, has finally ended this year-long period distrust as Rajnath Singh has emerged as the sole arbiter in the government with the complete backing of the RSS.