Modinomics faces trial by fire as friends turn foes

They are known in Delhi's socio-media circuits for the ammunition power they hold while unleashing a tirade against the political glitterati. After aggressively backing Narendra Modi in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Ram Jethmalani, Arun Shourie and Subramanian Swamy seem to have turned into his government's chief tormentors, just as it is nearing its first anniversary.

Former Law minister and Supreme Court lawyer Jethmalani, who had described Modi as "fiscally honest", has now occupied the chief critic's slot.

While Jethmalani advertised his battle against the Modi government on the black money issue, another former minister in the Vajpayee regime, Arun Shourie, unleashed a tirade against the Modi regime. While the two friends-turned-foes – Jethmalani and Shourie – are no longer members of the BJP, the third hypercritical voice has been that of Subramanian Swamy, who is a party leader and member of its national executive.

Shourie, who like the other two leaders had backed Modi's candidature for the Prime Ministership saying he was a decisive leader, was even more scathing in his attack than Jethmalani and Swamy, saying Modinomics was directionless. He even resonated the anti-BJP line when he said the 'trimurti' of Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and finance minister Arun Jaitley were running the party.

It was Shourie's fierce diatribe that gave ammunition to the Opposition to attack the Prime Minister and forced the government and BJP to return fire.

"He has confirmed, after LK Advani... that the Modi government is about unilateralism, autocracy and subjugation of institutional mechanism of governance at the hands of a chosen few. This government is run by those who believe in autocracy," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was quoted by ANI as saying.

Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman questioned the timing and motive of Shourie's remarks. "I am upset that a scholar who has always based his writings on research has faulted his own argument by calling growth rate figure as hyperbole... He has commented without respect for facts," she said.

BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh dismissed Shourie's outburst saying it "can be best explained as career nationalism".

His party colleague GVL Narasimha Rao dubbed the tirade against the government as 'divergent views'. "The critics of the government want a pro-big business governance, but the Prime Minister is in favour of people-centric governance while ensuring industrial growth through policy changes," he said.

Shourie's castigation came within days of Jethmalani, who was expelled from the BJP in 2013, putting out an advertisement asking finance minister Arun Jaitley a set of 12 questions on bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks. Two days later, Jethmalani criticised the new law replacing the collegium system of appointing judges, alleging the government was politicising and compromising judicial independence.

Known for his provocative statements in praise and criticism, Swamy had last year said Modi had 'Brahminical gunas' in response to Opposition attack on his brand of politics. Less than a year later, he started questioning his government on its approach towards bringing back black money, the Rafale deal and the black money Bill. Swamy, who last year in an interview had said that being a member of the BJP he cannot file a PIL against the govenrment, recently threatened to challenge the Prime Minister's commitment to buy the French combat aircraft.

Swamy, who had merged his Janata Party with the BJP ahead of the general elections, has now floated 'Virat Hindustan Sangam' with the aim of advocating Hindutva issues. His latest battle against the government is on the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) or black money Bill, which is expected to come up in Parliament next week. According to him, the Bill was "incomplete" as far as bringing back black money was concerned.