Edits | May 15, 2021
There seems to be a disconnect within the BJP. Amit Shah who recently met with Sharad Pawar has not yet opened his cards. Nitin Gadkari who was complaining that there is not enough funding for construction of highways has not made any further statements on the matter. This is as of May 15, 2021. Nitin Gadkari controls half of the total budget of the country, which can be seen as a clear divide between the old and the new BJP/RSS. The older people in the camp are in charge of this half of the revenue of the country but it seems that they are not getting enough of it. With major construction companies going into liquidation or under financial stress like Zee TV, DHFL, IL&FS et cetera, there aren’t many takers for highway projects. This prompted Nitin Gadkari’s statement that construction companies need to think of innovative ways to raise funding. In hindsight, Arun Jaitley, a member of the old RSS camp, had blocked many payments to construction companies and to the new RSS camp, which could have precipitated into a crisis and is happening now.
Further it seems that on the vaccination drive there is a disconnect between the PM, the Home Minister, the RSS and probably the other forces inside BJP like JP Nadda. All seem to be pulling from different directions. After the BJP’s monumental defeat in the Bengal elections, which were contested on the wrong rhetoric that it will win 200 seats, while the ploy was that it wanted to garner candidates for the 2024 general elections, there has not been any word from the top BJP leaders to the Indian public. Random lectures by the PM on matters unconnected with Covid crisis have been made which do not in any Senses of the word give confidence to the general public.
It is also amazing to see that the RSS never speaks about the pandemic, though it is the founding body of the BJP. It is also amazing to see that none of the older leaders except for the two in power ever speak about what is to be done in the pandemic situation. Hence the pressure is only on these two, and these two are missing in action.
With the central government rejecting any responsibility of the vaccination drive in India, and leaving it to the state governments to fend for themselves, and the state of India being divided into various power centres which are not in control of the central government, it just seems to show that the top leadership has lost its way. States wanting the Centre to be responsible to pay, and to order vaccines, with the Centre only putting up a doctor spokesman to defend its stand seems quite uncanny. At the instance of the Bengal elections the home minister as well as the Prime Minister came on every major television channel, staking their claim to be forming a government. Now when the epidemic has taken on unprecedented proportion they have failed to turn up. What would be the cause? As stated, there has to be a disconnect in the top machinery of BJP which has precipitated in the Centre being unable to take calls which are financial, logical and that which could fight the pandemic.
Divesh NathEditorWoman’s EraLinkedIn: Divesh Nath