Dhankhar's resignation: How Modi-Shah's ‘capable' BJP has served another strong message to RSS

The Print

6 days ago

Preparing to vacate the Vice President's Enclave barely three km from there, Jagdeep Dhankhar would have been bemused had he heard the BJP leader's assertions about the party's ideological moorings and priorities. The last time I visited the old VP House, his wife, Sudesh Dhankhar, wasn't very keen on moving to the new official residence that was under construction then. 'Almost two years are already gone. Why to move to a new place (for the remaining tenure)?' she had told me over breakfast. It wasn't going to be their choice, obviously. In hindsight, her reluctance turned out to be a sort of premonition. Their daughter and her family never shifted to the VP House and preferred to stay put in Gurgaon. These facts give us a glimpse of how the Dhankhar family was always practical and modest, and harboured no vaulting ambitions.
The Congress, said the above-mentioned BJP functionary, is a leader-driven political party with the sole objective to attain power. 'We are not a political party. We are a cadre-driven ideological party,' he said. If someone felt a pinch of salt in the chaat, it was deliberate. To validate his point, the BJP leader narrated the story of the demolition of Ayodhya's Babri mosque in 1992. Only two persons knew about the plan — Moropant Pingle and Ashok Singhal. Even LK Advani and Kalyan Singh had no idea about it, he said. Pingle was 'very clear' that the mosque had to go even if it meant the BJP not coming to power for 500 years. 'So, you see, ours is an ideology-driven party,' the BJP MP summed up.
At Shashi Tharoor's 'mango and chaat' party last Thursday, a BJP spokesman and parliamentarian — a brainy, erudite one, not one of those peddlers of banality — was holding forth on how his party was different. A few Congress politicians from Kerala had sneaked in and out, noticing the conspicuous absence of senior leaders. BJP leaders could, therefore, relish the succulent mangoes and talk about the virtues of their party without having to care about any spoilsport lurking around.
The 'reasons'
Jagdeep Dhankhar would know why he was suddenly in the BJP's crosshairs. His 'ouster' had much to do with the party's ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and what JP Nadda would call the BJP's 'sakshamta' or capability.
I will come to it a bit later. Let's first look at the reasons for Dhankhar's resignation. Nobody is buying the medical reason as mentioned in his resignation letter. That he quit under duress is an open secret. Let's examine the reasons that BJP leaders have been giving on the condition of anonymity. First, that the Narendra Modi-led government was uneasy about his diatribe against the judiciary. Really! The National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 was one of the first legislations brought by the Modi-led government. Remember the 'tyranny of the unelected' remark by then-finance minister Arun Jaitley when the Supreme Court struck it down?
Senior ministers and BJP leaders have been attacking the highest judiciary since then. In April, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said that the Supreme Court was responsible for 'inciting religious wars' and then-Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna for 'civil wars' in India.
Now compare their scathing remarks about the judiciary with those of ex-VP Dhankhar. Do you still think that the VP's criticism of the judiciary could be one of the reasons for his ouster? No way. In 2018, a few weeks after four Supreme Court judges had addressed a press conference, triggering a huge controversy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met a few journalists from a prominent English newspaper. I have it from authoritative sources that when they asked him about the judges' presser, he told them, 'You should know that a handful of families control the entire judiciary — just 60. But you media people don't write about it.' As a brilliant investigation done by my colleague, Apoorva Mandhani, early this year, PM Modi's figure was a bit exaggerated but he was right about the prevalence of dynasties and nepotism in the judiciary. Apoorva found out that 60 per cent of the SC judges were from lawyer or judge families.
And one in three High Court judges were related to judges, ex-judges or lawyers.
These figures vindicate Modi whose government has perpetually been at odds with the Supreme Court collegium over judicial appointments.
In this backdrop, one has to be incredibly credulous to buy BJP spin masters' argument that the government got rid of VP Dhankhar for harmonious relationship with the judiciary.
Another explanation offered by them is that Dhankhar had started embarrassing the government by publicly criticising it. They offer just one instance — when Dhankhar had, in the presence of Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, questioned the government for not fulfilling its promises to farmers. 'How could he say that to Shivraj Chouhan?' — is the usual refrain of spin masters. Their sympathy is touching given how Chouhan was denied CMship even after leading his party to a historic victory in Madhya Pradesh in the last Assembly election.
Also, Dhankhar had prefaced his sympathy for farmers with dollops of praise for the government. 'For the first time, I have seen India changing…India was never at such great heights…when this is happening, why are farmers suffering?' he had said.
As it was, Dhankhar seemed to be playing to the gallery. Besides, that was the only time he said something that might be construed as remotely critical of the government. The spin masters would have us believe that the BJP top brass remembered Shivraj Singh Chouhan's pain seven months later and decided to oust the VP. I am not sure if Chouhan is shedding copious tears of joy to see the party high command's sudden love and respect for him. For all we know, he may be dismayed.
Yet another reason being offered by spin masters is that Dhankhar, without consulting the government, presented the Opposition's motion to remove Allahabad High Court Judge Yashwant Varma in the Rajya Sabha. The government wanted to move the motion, supported by all parties, in the Lok Sabha. What's the big deal? Dhankhar had only spoken about the Opposition's motion, as any chairperson should ideally do. He had not admitted their motion yet. That's why the government has now declared that they will first go ahead with the motion in the Lok Sabha. The government could have done the same even without throwing Dhankhar under the bus. They just needed to visit Dhankhar in his chamber and ask him not to admit it.
Yet another reason being cited is that he was dusting off the Opposition's pending motion to remove Justice Shekhar Yadav for his alleged hate speech case. But how could he have kept mum about one motion against one judge when a similar motion against another judge that was moved later was being taken up by both Houses of Parliament?
Also read: Jagdeep Dhankhar's abrupt exit says three things about the Modi govt
Dhankhar and the RSS
If you have heard of or read more explanations from the government and the party's spin masters for Dhankhar's resignation — nay, removal — just put them through a test of logic and reason. They all sound ludicrous. Just think of the above-mentioned explanations. Are these spin masters listening to what they are saying? Because their explanations project the Modi-led government as so dictatorial and insecure that it won't allow the occupant of the second-highest Constitutional office in India to use his discretion even in routine matters in the Rajya Sabha. Those spin doctors suggest that top BJP leadership has become so arrogant that they can boot out the Vice President of India for acting without taking their permission even in trivial matters. That would be a bigger cause of worry for us.
Thankfully, those are not the exact reasons for Dhankhar's ouster. It's a message to the RSS. To be precise, it serves as a response to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's reference to the 75-year ceiling. We often heard Dhankhar singing paeans of the RSS inside and outside the Rajya Sabha. Given that Dhankhar's ideological moorings were not in the RSS, his effusive praise of the Sangh was seen as an outreach to the BJP's ideological patron. The fact is that Dhankhar had grown close to RSS top functionaries over the years and was in constant touch with them.
The Sangh was using his legal advice on different issues, including in the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi case. They grew only closer when he, as the West Bengal Governor, went after the Mamata Banerjee government. Its failure to govern Syama Prasad Mookerjee's home state has always been a sore point for the Sangh. The RSS was instrumental in getting Dhankhar into the Vice President's House. They could only watch in silence as the BJP sent him packing without consulting the Sangh.
The chain of events leading to Dhankhar's resignation last Monday had started with Leader of the Rajya Sabha JP Nadda snubbing Dhankhar by skipping the Rajya Sabha Business Advisory Committee meeting called by the latter at 4:30 pm. It must be a coincidence that it was Nadda who had declared last year that the BJP was saksham or capable now and could manage its own affairs without the RSS' interference. Amid the stalemate over the choice of the next BJP president, Dhankhar's sudden ouster is another message to the RSS that the BJP is saksham now and can manage its own affairs.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)