Nitin Gadkari again stirs the pot with barbs at Modi & Shah

Often described as the favourite son of the RSS and ‘Nagpur’s man in reserve’, Nitin Gadkari is at it again, indirectly taking potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. In politically loaded statements over the past few days, the Surface Transport and Highways Minister has been quoted saying that some people in the BJP should talk less and appeared to blame the Modi-Shah duo for the party’s electoral reverses.

On Monday, delivering the annual endowment lecture to Intelligence Bureau officers, the Union Minister once again spoke more on politics and politicians and several of his statements appeared to be directed at Modi and Shah. Here is a sample:

• If I am the party president and my MPs and MLAs are not doing well, then who is responsible ? I am.
• Gadkari likes Jawaharlal Nehru’s speeches.
• Tolerance is the biggest asset of the Indian system
• The attitude that I did this because someone else did it is not right.
• You can’t win elections only because you speak well
• One who thinks he knows everything is mistaken.
• People should refrain from artificial marketing.
• It is good to win elections but if you cannot bring about changes in the lives of people, then it will make no difference when you come to power, or go out of power
• This country doesn’t belong to any party or individual but to 120 Crore Indians

No wonder a delighted Congress leader Kapil Sibal tweeted that the Prime Minister should listen to Gadkari more often ! This is what Sibal tweeted:

Gadkari, former BJP president, is believed to be close to the RSS. Analysts have also speculated on the Sangh’s preference for Gadkari as a replacement for Narendra Modi, whose stock is seen to be dipping sharply despite the hype and media manipulation.

The choice of Gadkari to deliver the endowment lecture to IB officers is also curious. While the IB director is known to have been hand picked by the National Security Advisor AjitDoval, neither the NSA nor the Home Secretary were present at the lecture. And the Union minister reportedly did not dwell on national security or internal security issues at all. By all accounts it was a political speech. So, the question is, why did the IB invite Gadkari ?

Curiously, soon after the Modi Government took over in 2014, there were reports of Gadkari’s official bungalow in New Delhi being bugged.