What does the fall of two of the three key Modi picks tell us?

Of the three politicians who couldn’t have risen to such heights had they not been handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two – Smriti Irani and Anandiben Patel – have been jettisoned.

The third, Amit Shah, still appears entrenched in his position, but the fall of the other two has prompted two serious questions.

Is Modi reasserting his control? Or is it the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh discreetly reasserting its authority after a lull of over two years?

At the outset, neither Irani, who was moved last month from the crucial Human Resource Development Ministry to the lower profile Textile Ministry, nor Anandiben – nor Shah, for that matter – was a nominee of either Bharatiya Janata Party or the RSS. They were handpicked and given prominent positions simply because they identified themselves so closely with Modi. That was their identity, their sole source of strength. While Irani was given the key Human Resource Development Ministry, Anandiben was made his successor in Gujarat and Shah was handed over the command of the BJP.

Two years down the line, Modi’s decision to drop two of them – first Irani and now Anandiben — cannot, therefore, be understood simply in terms of his sudden realisation of the need to reassert his authority in his government and in Gujarat. That he would seek to do so by diminishing the responsibilities of those closest to him is difficult to comprehend. What makes this narrative even more unusual is the fact that he has done this at a time when he is facing all kinds of odds – be it on economic, social or political front – within the Sangh Parivar.

Key agenda

That both the HRD Ministry and the government of Gujarat are central to the RSS’ scheme of things is hardly a secret. But while the HRD Ministry under Irani was simply not being able to carry out the RSS agenda silently and without generating any controversy, Gujarat under Anandiben’s government appeared roiled first by Patidar agitations and then by Dalit protests.

The saffronisation of education is the key agenda of the RSS, and it wants its implementation silently and without any fuss. Similarly, Gujarat has been for decades the nerve centre of Hindutva politics. The RSS was, therefore, not expected to wait endlessly for the two most significant areas of its concern to start working in the manner it wanted.

Though the successor of Anandiben is yet to be announced and a decision in this regard would be taken by the BJP’s parliamentary board, once the replacement for Irani was announced the motive force became clear. And this showed up within days as the new HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar, who enjoys excellent rapport with the RSS, chose for his first public engagement a seminar on the government’s proposed education policy, organised by Bharat Shikshan Mandal, an RSS-linked outfit, at Constitution Club. In fact, in less than a month after assuming office, he has already attended at least four meetings with bodies linked to the RSS.

That it would be different in Gujarat – and the RSS would abstain from playing a critical role in identifying Anandiben’s successor – is difficult to believe. For practical and silent implementation of its objects, rather than empty rhetoric, is what it expects from those in charge of the crucial state of Gujarat.

This takeover of Union HRD Ministry and Gujarat – signifying a silent adjustment of the real authority – by the RSS does not, by any means, imply a rift between it and Modi. The only thing that it signals is this: the RSS has started closing in, and Modi has obliged even if that means sacrificing his picks one by one.