#dnaEdit: The loose cannon

Subramanian Swamy’s diatribes against Raghuram Rajan, Arvind Subramanian, Shaktikanta Das and Arun Jaitley have placed the BJP top brass in a quandary. In recent years, Swamy has emerged as a Hindutva icon among the BJP’s social media followers and any action against him will not be taken too kindly by these sections. His track record of turning into the biggest foe of those who were once his friends could certainly be another reason. When Swamy was inducted into the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he had impressed Narendra Modi and the Sangh Parivar with his crusade to nail P. Chidambaram and A Raja in the 2G spectrum scam and Sonia and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. However, Swamy, a Harvard-trained economist, had set his sights on a ministerial berth after the BJP victory but was left disappointed. Since then he has taken occasional potshots at finance minister Arun Jaitley which both Jaitley and the party had, so far, chosen to ignore. Finally, in the budget session, Swamy was offered a Rajya Sabha ticket. The BJP’s calculation was that Swamy would counter the Congress’ obstructionism in the House and singlehandedly needle the Congress through frontal attacks against the Gandhis.

Swamy spearheaded the BJP charge in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, but this only served towards making the Congress more belligerent. With Swamy dominating proceedings in the Rajya Sabha, what did not go unnoticed was that Jaitley, the leader of the house, was often missing in action. But the manner in which Swamy has turned into a double-edged sword for the BJP in the past one month, will no doubt, discomfit the party.

Rajan has already stated that he does not want a second term as RBI governor after Swamy’s personal attacks against him went virtually unchallenged by the government. Arvind Subramanian was emerging as a top contender for the RBI governor’s post but Swamy’s tweets accusing the chief economic advisor of adopting anti-India and anti-Modi positions in the past were calculated to undermine his position. Swamy has also levelled serious allegations against Shaktikanta Das and posted a number of tweets mocking Jaitley. The finance minister has been forced to shed his reticence and come out in support of Das. But in a party where all power is now vested in the Modi-Amit Shah combine, the onus is on these two leaders, and not just Jaitley, the ostensible target of Swamy’s tweets, to respond.

The irony of the BJP’s two-year spell in governance is the amount of time the government has spent in dousing the fires after irresponsible statements by ministers and MPs. For a party obsessively wedded to organisational and individual discipline, such statements have led the Opposition to claim that these cannot have come without sanction from the top echelons. However, the danger with Swamy’s recent diatribes is that it questions the competence of some of the top officials managing the country’s economy. It is too early to say whether Swamy’s relationship with the BJP has soured. If the party thought that they could cut him loose on the Congress and hold him on a tight leash at other times they are mistaken. His hurt at being denied a ministerial berth or a plum party post is evident. Starting from the Emergency, Swamy’s political trajectory has seen him breaking bread and later crossing swords with an array of political personages. His legal crusade against Jayalalithaa, Chidambaram and Sonia Gandhi are commendable but what has hurt Swamy is the frequent resort to calumny and unsubstantiated claims. With or without the BJP, Swamy can be reliably expected to continue on this track. But the onus is on PM Modi to ensure that the personal attacks on top officials are effectively countered.