Did anyone notice the photograph released by the government at the launch of the Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency, meant to provide financing to micro, small and medium Enterprises (MSMEs)?
You would have expected MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra to be present at the release. He wasn't even invited. The only two people on the stage were Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
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Cut to the national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengaluru. Four people were seated on the stage: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, party President Amit Shah, party veteran L K Advani.
Now ask yourself which states were present at the podium. Jaitley and Advani are both MPs from Gujarat, elected so many times from the state that they are honorary Gujaratis. Shah and Modi are Gujaratis by birth.
The implication of this Warrant of Precedence has been lost on no one in the BJP. It is the subject of a silent hum in the party.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet includes the PM and home minister. Few know that the home minister does not see the files on the way into the Prime Minister's Office. He only sees them on the way out and appends his post facto approval.
On Tuesdays, the BJP has a meeting of its Parliamentary party. At least twice, senior members of the party - including ministers - have come in for public humiliation. The PM said on the floor of the house that he had himself ticked off Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti for her raamzade/haraamzade remark. Many in the BJP thought the PM did that to make his peace with a constituency most in the Sangh are sworn to oppose.
But that isn't enough. This to a person who has won a Lok Sabha election. She would be justified in asking herself what half the ministers in government have done to deserve being there: The defence minister is from the Rajya Sabha. So is the human resources development minister, finance, railways, commerce, telecom and IT, oil and natural gas, coal and power, energy, environment and forest and information and broadcasting.
Some murmurs have begun. What were so many serving ministers doing at a conference hosted by what is essentially an NGO, the India Foundation? The managing director of India Foundation is Shaurya Doval, a patriotic Indian. He is also the director of Zeus Caps, which describes itself as a principal finance platform focussed on infrastructure investing in emerging markets and describes Doval as leading the principal investment initiatives and deal originations in India. "We strive to deliver superior returns to investors and value added strategic advice to corporates. Since our formation the team has successfully executed over $800 million of equity transactions. We provide a one stop solution to both investors and corporates looking to transact through the opportunities and challenges of emerging markets," its website says.
Shame on you for even hinting that there could be a conflict of interest here!
Even stranger things are happening. Subramanian Swamy announced that he would take the government to court on the Rafale aircraft deal. Would he have said this without Jhandewalan okaying it? About a deal that the Modi government considers a big feather in its cap? Would former finance minister Yashwant Sinha have criticised the proposal to scrap the Planning Commission unless he'd run the idea past someone ? "I had introduced the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act in 2003 when I was the finance minister for fiscal consolidation. If the legislation needs to be dumped now, then do it," he is reported as having said in Kolkata about the Budget in which Jaitley decided to achieve fiscal deficit of 3 per cent of gross domestic product in three years.
Two events are due between now and the new year. One is the Assembly election in Bihar, due sometime in November. That will be followed by a second term to party president Amit Shah. The two are related.
Everyone is saying the Bihar election will change the dynamic in the party and government. The last two or three sets of elections have not exactly been successes. In Jammu & Kashmir, BJP leaders themselves say at least five seats were lost because of wrong choice of tickets; about Delhi the less said the better; and Maharashtra where credit is being given to Modi and Shah to fight the elections independent of the Shiv Sena but the party was still pipped at the post. But if the BJP is unable to form a government in Bihar...
CLARIFICATION
In an earlier version of this column, it was mentioned that Subramanian Swamy was a minister in the last National Democratic Alliance government, which is incorrect. The error is regretted.