Politicians as a genre are like loose cannon. They talk a lot and try to score brownie points but deliver little. known. Unfortunately their speeches are a staple diet to the millions who hang on to their words. Often such loose talk has landed them in trouble. This is the case with Home Minister Amit Shah this past week. His intervention in a debate and chiding the opposition to not keep chanting Ambedkar Ambedkar and instead chant the name of some gods, (so that they could gain Moksha) ended in uproar for the whole day. The Congress, CPIM and Ambedkarites of all hues saw in Shah’s call an insult to the Dalits in particular, Understandably, Shah had not bargained for this. Without doubt, it was not his intention to disparage the icon of India’s depressed sections or to hurt their sentiments. But, words are like arrows. Once out the damage is done and difficult to repair. The large army of Ambedkarites are capable of making or marring the electoral prospects of any politician in most constituencies. This is true of Gujarat as well, it being Shah’s home turf.
For Shah, this comes at the most inopportune moment. He was rightly fancying the saffron nod for the PM’s post as and when his patron, Narendra. Modi calls it a day in politics or hangs up his boots. That day cannot be too far. The last parliamentary polls showed the people were somewhat tired of him. He is already on record as the longest serving PM through three terms at a stretch. The age factor will also be against Modi by the time the next polls are held in 2029. It is not just Shah who hopes to step into his shoes. Yogi Adiyanath is there, and so is Nitin Gadkari, All of them exceptionally good politicians and administrators on the saffron side. To which is recently added the name of Devendra Fadnavis, after his anointment as chief minister of Maharashtra for a fresh term. He may not have built an enviable reputation for himself yet. Rather the obverse. The recent assembly polls in Maharashtra was fought by the BJP alliance there by creating an impression through the pliant media there that rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde would continue as CM. This enthused the powerful Marathas, whose own baby was Shinde. The BJP abruptly changed the plate after the saffron alliance swept the polls. Fadnavis, a Brahmin from the RSS stable in Maharashtra laughed his way to the CM’s chair Politics, Shinde knew, was a treacherous game, as he had practised himself to grab the CM Gaddi– the same way his old boss Uddhav Thackeray managed to sit in the CM’s seat after the 2018 assembly polls. Shah’s present predicament could be music to the ears of all these PM hopefuls. Tragedy however is the manner in which the precious time of Parliament is used to rake up silly matters, if only to whip up passions against one another.
