Modi Warns Errant Party MPs Of "Changes" If They "Do Not Change" Themselves
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-12-07 10:57:46
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
A meeting of the BJP's parliamentary party was held in Delhi today. It was attended by the top brass of the party including Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and BJP national president J P Nadda, among others.
Normally, such meetings are mundane affairs and parliamentary strategy is discussed. But the meeting on Tuesday assumed importance as Prime Minister Modi delivered a stinging rebuke to the assembled party MPs. "Please be regular in attending Parliament and meetings. It is not good for me to continuously stress about this (and treat you) like children. If you don't change yourself, there will be changes in due course," Modi told them.
The Prime Minister has never taken kindly to party MPs playing truant. Himself a workaholic who has set amazing standards, he expects party leaders to follow his example and never shirk work. He has also repeatedly asked MPs to maintain discipline, punctuality and decorum. But BJP MPs have been behaving like prima donnas ever since the party came to power with a sizeable majority in 2014 and increased it further in 2019.
Loudmouths in the party have embarrassed it numerous times by issuing damaging statements on many issues. Party MPs painted farmers in anti-national colours leading to increased trust deficit with the farm unions and the Lakhimpur Kheri incident happened to show how irresponsibly (and that is a mild term) BJP MPs and their kin behave in public.
Since a spate of state elections are scheduled in the next few months and the party is facing opposition to a lot of its recent political initiatives, the Prime Minister's warning comes at the right time. The underlying threat should act as a deterrent for party MPs and spur them to mend their ways. Since the party has not shied from changing chief ministers and dropping ministers in several states, the MPs will most likely get the drift and become responsible. Else, as the Prime Minister hinted, there will be changes.
