AMIT SHAH, POLITICS, PARTY AND BIOGRAPHY

A look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

Amit Shah and the March of the BJP
Anirban Ganguly 1 Shiwanand Dwivedi
New Delhi: Bloomsbury, 2019.

Isac Deutcher, the famous biographer of Stalin and of Trotsky quotes the Florentine political thinker Niccolo Machiavelli who says "all armed phpphets conquer and unarmed prophets are vanquished". Biographers of politicians, diplomats and statesmen should remember this wise insight while writing biobraphies or rather manufacturing them. Anirban Ganguly, is a well known ideologue of the BJP and is the Director of the Syama Pradad Reseach Foundation, a well known think tank, in New Delhi. He is a good writer with an impressive educational credentials to his name.n However, Amit Shah and his political life though well documented, this book fails to address certain vital issues: the Goghra Incident, the Shorabbuddin Inncident and the encounter killings of Ishrat Jehan and her terrorist companions are just ignored. And this is a wrong rhetorical strategy. In fact as a biographer of Amit Shan, Anirban Ganguly should have discussed these three very imp[ortant events that in effect shaped Amit Shah's rise to the most poserful positionas the Home Minister of India. Before delving into the details of the biography I want to discuss precisely the issues evaded by Dr Ganguly.

Both the Hon'ble Prime Minister and the Hon'ble Home Minister of India have been accused by the Congress and other opposition parties of being complicit in the massacres that took place after the killing of the 59 passengers at Godhra station in Febuary 2002. Andy Marino in his biography of Narendra Modi which I have reviewed in this blog, has clearly brought out the facts that Narendra Modi was elected to the Gujarat Assemby just a day before the Godhra inncident and he was 200 kilometers away. Telephone records clearly show thst the then Chief Minister anf his MoS Home Department, noene other than the subject of this biography were on the phone directing the police to use maximum force to bring the riots under control. The Army was called out from Ahemdabad on the same day and this is in direct contrat to the conduct of Rajiv Gandhi who refused to call out the Army even as Congressmen went aon a killing spree after his mother died. Shoot at sight orders were given and more people were killed in the police firing than in the riots inself. Rampaging mobs were brought under control. The UPA Government tried to implicate Narendra Modi in the Gujarat Riots by saying that the state Governemnt did not take steps to control the situation. In fact, there were insinuations to the effect by Congressmen that Modi and Shah were directing the mobs and a discredited police officer, Sanjeev Bhat made statements to the effect that he was present in the room when such orders were given. This satement of Sanjeev Bhat was proved to be false on the basis of his own mobile phone data which showed his presence elsewhere. Based on such propaganda the Supreme Court ordered a Special Investigating Team and the SIT after interogationg both Modi and Shah gave a clean chit. In other words, exonerated both of any involvement in the post Godhra riots. This allegation was used both by the Congress party and Pakistan to demonixde Modi leading to the denial of US visa for nearly a decade. These facts are important and Anirban Ganguly has erred by ignoring them.

Amit Shah was the Minister of State for the Home Department and reported directly to the Chief Minister. Amit Shah hailed from a rich Gujarati business family and was educated in a traditional way and this explains both the analytical skill and the vigour of his public persona. Remarkably, Amit Shah was externed from Gujarat on the orders of the High Court and this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The killing of Shorabbuddin, a criminal who was into extortion and ransom from rich marble traders from Rajastan and Gujarat was wanrted for henious crimes in 9 states of India and he was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police and was taken to Ahmedabad. His killing seems to have been a fall out of rivalries with other extortionist gangs and Vanjara, the Director General of Police was given the goahead for the encounter. Amit Shan was in no way involved in the execution style killing of Kousar Bi who was a witness to the killing of Shorabbudin and the telephonic conversations produced in court clearly show that the context of the exchange was limited to Shorabbudin, a criminal wanted in 9 states. The then UPA regime wanted to foist the case of wilful murder on Amit Shah by arguing that the encounter in which Ishrat Jehan was killed was a "fake encouter" and the three men and the girl ws killed in cold blood. This false allegation was mounted by suppressing two vital pieces of information. First, the Indian IB itself provided an affadavit stating that Ishrat and her companions were LeT terrorits. Second, David Coleman Headley in his custodial interrogation had stated clearly that Ishrat was given training in becoming a suicide bomber. The lengths to which the Congress under Sonia, Chidambaram and Shinde went to hide these facts and proscecute Amit Shah suggets that they were part of the conspiracy to carry out an assasination.

All these controversies swirling around Amit Shah led his to be arrested and he spent four months in Sabarmathi Jail before he was ordered out of Gujarat. These events shaped the political future of Amit Shah and in a way the rst of the country. Shah took up residence in Delhi and started planning for the 2014 General Election. His reorganization of the Party as the National Secretary was the turning point in the political fortunes of the BJP. While Narendra Modi is undoubtedly the tallest and the best Prime Minister India has had, ever, Amit Shah's role as the strategist cannot be gain said. Amit Shah made the BJP into a well oiled electoral machine and sought to involve people from the level of the booth right up to the Central Committee of the Party. He may not know, but Amit Shah took a leaf straight out of Lenin's advice to his parttment on the eve of the October Revolution of 1919. Organize the party at the level of the soviets. Another every important contibution of Amit Shah lay in collecting the documents relating to the Pary and making it availble on public domain. The BJP e Library is one of the finest and no political party can boast of such a fine line up of reseach and scholarly material. And Amit Shan was one of the first to understand the importance of "Big Data" in planning for the National Elections. BJP has one of the most sohisticated data cntres in which GIS enabled data for all the main Lok Sabha constituencies is available at the click of a mouse. The creation of this data base was due to the concerted efforts of computer savvy men and women who worked as volunteers for years on end.

Amit Shah is now the Hom,e Minister. He won from the Gandhinagar seat. What will be his main thrust. He will be ruthless in the pursuit of Indian polical objective and hence he will be in Machivalli's sense a prophet armed. He will be tough on naxalite violence and will not hesitate to use his immense political capital to strengthen the BJP in parts of India where it is weak. As far as terrorist viloence is concerned, there will be tough measures without too much though for collateral damage. Being honest to the core, Amit Shan can afford to be ruthless. And India demands ruthless action in Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

The book under review makes good reading. But it leaves the reader unsatisfied as important issues are ignored. I reccomend this book.

THE VICTORY OF THE BJP IN THE MAY 2019 ELECTIONS; IMPLICATIONS FOR INDIA

https://wordcraftandstatecraft.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-electoral-prospects-of-bjp.htmlA look at the world of politics, statecraft, diplomacy and books

There was no great surprise in the relection of the BJP and the victory of Shri Naredra Modi. In fact in a number of blogs we had made the same prediction and the actual number of seats won was close to the figure we had predicted in the blog (link above). 303 seats across the lengrth and breadth of the country. From 282 seats in the 2014 Elections the individual seats of the BJP has gone up to 303 and the Party contested little over 385 seats leaving the rest to its allies like Shiv Sena, JD  (U), Shiromani Akali Dal and the AIADMK. If we can use a cricketting metaphor from the T20 series, the srike rate of the BJP is very high meaning 80 % of the BJP candidates won their seats. In order to curb anti incumbancy, the BJP dropped nearly 105 sitting members. On the whole an impressive amndate and for the first time in India's electoral history, the percentage of votes polled have crossed 50% in vafour of the BJP. Most Governemnts have been formed with vote shares ranging from 28% to 34%. We now have a Governemnt with a vote share of more than 50%. All this means stability and the Government will be bold in taking decisons.

The Map given illustrates the safforon surge that has seen the emergence of the BJP as India's natural party of Governence. This victory was achieved in the face of the most vicious electorl campaign that India has even seen. Rahul  Gandhi, the putative challenger, had to tender an apology to the Supreme Court of India for calling Modi a "chor", thief. Other Congressmen emboldened by the aggression displayed by their leader were less than flattering in their rhetorical attacks on the Prime Minister. The more he was attacked, the greater was the backlash from the electorate. Then a variety of identity cards were pulled out: Dalis are in danger was one such. The fact is that the BJP has convincingly demonstrated its hold over the Dalit population by winning 75% of the reserved seats. In fact Congress did not win a single reserved seat nor did the Communists. For all their bluff and bluster both the Connumits and the Congress are bereft of any support amonmg the subaltern classes. Only the BJP commands the allegiance of the SC and ST communities. In the tibal belt of Central India the BJP held sway. All this goes to ahow thast the vicious campaign of polarization run by the so called Cetre Left Parties did not cut ice with the population.

The BJP won 18 seats in West Bengal and a clutch of seats in Orissa. The re election of Naveen Patnaik to power shows that the Indian electorate rewards good governence. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala the results show that people vote on emotional lines. There was sustained and calculated socialmedia attacks on Modi and the bJP throughout the 5 years that he has been in power and more so sicne the death of Jayalalitaa. The killings of the Tamils in Sri Lanka during the UPA rule was forgotten and the party which was then in power Congress joined hands with the DMK. The ease with which they joined hands shows that the politics of Tamil Nadu is still fluid and if BJP has effective leadership, the challenge can be met. In Bengal the BJP gave a resounding ideological challenge to the TMC. In Tamil Nadu the BJP takes dravidianist ideology for granted. It is not prepared to challenge the dravidianist dispensation.

What can India expect from Narendra Modi in the next five years. First, econom,ic development by huge investment in Infrasttructure will continue. New ports and transport hube will be established. On the National Security front major initiatives can be expected. The Nation Register of Citizens will be given full adminstrative backing as it has the approval of the Supreme Court. Identity politics will not be entertained thopugh the Congress habit of instigating the minorities will continue. Cattle Laws will be enforced so that the instances of gau rakshaks taking law into their own hands are reduced. Israel India partnership in Education will be encouraged. Modi will try to ease tensions with China as he is focussed on the internal developments and he cannot be distracted by adventures near the border.

The Economy will continue to grow at 7 to 8 % and further liberalization will be expected. Agricultural sector will be looked in and cold storage facilties and Silos for grain storage will be undertaken. In Higher Education there will be an emphasis on fundamental research.