The Week India – June 30, 2019

16 THE WEEK • JUNE 30, 2019

POWER POINT

SACHIDANANDA MURTHY

ILLUSTRATION BHASKARAN [email protected]

N

arendra Modi has a penchant for surpris-

es and the selection of Om Birla as the

Lok Sabha speaker was the most recent

one. The choice of the Lok Sabha backbencher,

currently only in his second term as MP, caused

eyebrows to be raised among his partymen and

the media. But, many thought it was in line with

the prime minister’s thinking that no specula-

tion ever covers the entire spectrum. The prime

minister has pulled rank outsiders out of his

hat during the last five years. In 2017, very few

people had suspected that then Bihar governor

Ram Nath Kovind would be the next president, as

there were more visible and senior names from

within the BJP pantheon. Same was the case

with the choice of S. Jaishankar as external affairs

minister, though many foreign

policy observers thought that

the post-retirement Padma

Shri was an indicator that

Modi had high regard for his

one-time foreign secretary.

Birla, the energetic sec-

ond-rung party leader, too, has

pipped several seniors with

longer parliamentary experi-

ence. A similar surprise was

sprung in 1998 by Telugu De-

sam leader N. Chandrababu

Naidu, when prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee

offered the speakership to the regional party. Just

a few minutes before the deadline for nomina-

tions, Naidu sent the name of G.M.C. Balayogi,

prompting Vajpayee and other BJP leaders to ask,

“Who is Balayogi?” It was the second Lok Sabha

term for the affable politician, who became

speaker again in 1999 but died in a helicopter

crash in 2002. Normally, the speaker’s chair is

offered to senior leaders of the ruling party who

cannot be accommodated in the cabinet. That

is how stalwarts like N. Sanjiva Reddy, Balram

Jakhar, Rabi Ray, Shivraj Patil and Meira Kumar

became presiding officers. At the start of his first

term, Modi nominated Sumitra Mahajan, a senior

BJP parliamentarian, as speaker, but she was de-

nied ticket this time, having crossed the age limit

of 75 years. However, coalition compulsions have

resulted in members of parties not in government

being offered speakership, as in the case of P.A.

Sangma, when the Congress gave outside support

to the United Front in 1996, and of Somnath Chat-

terjee, whose CPI(M) gave similar support to the

United Progressive Alliance in 2004.

But, this time, Modi was in a mood to go for

a younger and less prominent face, as he was

confident that the big majority of the National

Democratic Alliance would make it easy for a

speaker with less parliamentary experience. Even

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi is in

his first ministerial stint, though

this is his fourth term in the Lok

Sabha. Modi has shown the same

penchant for surprise names

while choosing some of the BJP

chief ministers. Manohar Lal

Khattar was not the frontrunner in

Haryana, nor was Yogi Adityanath

in Uttar Pradesh. In the Lok

Sabha elections, the BJP changed

candidates in 99 constituencies

that it had won in 2014, which

included vacancies due to death

and retirements, and plain denial of tickets to

sitting MPs. There has been less experimentation

in the higher bureaucracy, as the top officials in

the Prime Minister’s Office, cabinet secretariat

and major ministries were selected on the basis

of their seniority and experience, and have got

newer terms.

However, on the organisational side, Modi

has not gone for a fresh face. Veteran party of-

fice-bearer J.P. Nadda is working president under

Amit Shah until the organisational elections.

But, Nadda himself can be on trial when the time

comes to choose a full-time successor for Shah

later in the year.

The men in Modi’s hat