BJP allies to force checks & balances on Modi govt
Image credit X @BJP4India
Modi Cabinet to walk slippery track of coalition govt
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, June 7: Hectic parleys are underway for the government formation at the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to lend his ears to many in the government formation.
The Lok Sabha mandate pushed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to soften stance with the allies. The BJP leaders are sending out accommodative signals to allies.
The BJP talking heads have asserted that the party will not part with the top four post which make for the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). The BJP will retain portfolios of Home, Defence, Finance, and External Affairs.
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Incidentally, none of the allies of the BJP is interested in any of the top four portfolios. Insiders argue that the lack of interest in the top four posts is not on account of an absence of aspiration.
“Being regional parties, the heads of the BJP allies don’t want any from their ranks to hog more limelight than them. The top four posts in the Cabinet also have statures either at par with chief ministers or above them,” said a JD (U) insider.
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There appear indications that Modi will get a ‘honeymoon period’ for at least six months. But unlike the last 10 years, the functioning of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is set for a change.
“Having run a government with a clear majority so far, Modi will have to now work more closely with the BJP’s partners, especially before pushing forward any major policy issue at a time when the Opposition benches are bolstered by greater presence,” wrote K V Prasad, former Editor of The Tribune, in an article in Deccan Herald.
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The ‘checks and balances’ on the Modi government may be on the anvil. In the second term, Modi forced the Armed Forces to accept the Agnipath scheme. But within 24-hour of electing Modi as the leader of the NDA, the JD (U) and the Lok Jan Shakti Party (Ram Vilas) have called for review of the contractual employment scheme in the Armed Forces.
Modi had shuffled all the four top posts while taking oath for the second term. He had dropped late Sushma Swaraj from the Cabinet to make space for a lateral entry of Subhramanyam Jaishankar as Minister for the External Affairs.
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The BJP talking heads argue that Modi may shuffle a minimum of two positions in the CSS. The fate of Amit Shah, the Union Minister for Home Affairs in the second term of the Modi Cabinet, is not yet clear.
Insiders in the BJP argue that the party now needs Shah to helm the affairs of the organisation. On lighter notes, some assert that Shah had always been a de-facto president of the BJP.
“Modi now cannot unilaterally make announcements by coming on television and give four-hour of notice to the people. He will have to make at least two phone calls, one to N Chandrababu Naidu and the another to Nitish Kumar,” said Deepak K. Upreti, a Delhi-based political observer.
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