The Purge In The BJP National Executive Council
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-10-07 15:00:49
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
J P Nadda, the president of the BJP, on Thursday announced a reconstituted national executive council. The names of Varun Gandhi, Maneka Gandhi, Chaudhary Birendra Singh and Subramanian Swamy were missing. This immediately led people to think that the mother-and-son Gandhi duo were removed because of the way in which Varun Gandhi had aggressively demanded action against those accused of the run over at Lakhimpur Kheri that killed 4 farmers and led to violence in which four BJP workers were killed and scores were injured.
But one thinks that political parties, especially the BJP (and the Congress) do not work so fast. One thinks that it may be the other way round. Maybe Varun Gandhi got information that his mother and he were going to be dropped from the council. That is why he became so aggressive, posting videos of the incident and demanding that since the footage was "crystal clear" "accountability should be fixed". Ever since the farmers started agitating against the new farm laws, both Maneka and Varun have been sympathetic to their cause, against the party line. But that really was due to the fact that they have been sidelined of late and the hoped-for berth in the Union ministry for Varun also did not materialize, not in 2019 and not even in the recent reshuffle and expansion.
The BJP is said to be a 'disciplined' party and party leaders seldom speak against party policies or other leaders in public. Yes it is possible that Varun Gandhi was troubled and disgusted (as any right thinking Indian would be) by the visuals in the video and that he chose to air his views out of a sense of righteousness, but it is also quite possible that he chose to do so because he had come to know that he would be dropped from the council and further sidelined. It would be interesting to watch if the party escalates the issue by issuing a show cause notice to Varun and what the 'other' Gandhis do now.
