Sheikh Chilli is a well-known character in South Asian mythology. He abounds in vision, dreams, and knows how to inspire people with his talk. He is brimming with futuristic ideas, but has no idea how to realise them: The most famous Sheikh Chilli story is how he decided to cut a branch off a tree when he needed firewood, except that he was sitting on the branch while cutting it.
Several in the Bharatiya Janata Party are reminded of Sheikh Chilli while evaluating the team that the party's new president, Nitin Gadkari, announced earlier this week. Some inclusions are inexplicable, omissions even more so. Promotions and demotions don't seem to indicate any larger strategy the new president may have in mind for the party.
First, the party amended its constitution to have a 120-member national executive, up from 80 earlier: This is fine, as the president thought he would benefit from wider consultation. But, see the list of members in the executive, including a mysterious category called 'others' (for which there is no provision in the party constitution). The resultant national executive has 190-plus members. It can only be an insecure president who has to subvert the constitution, presumably to have an executive packed with his supporters.
Now, the team itself. Of the 190-plus members, more than 25 are from Maharashtra. Actor Vinod Khanna's wife Kavita is an 'other'. But the party's former foreign and finance minister Yashwant Sinha has not even been found worthy of being an 'other'. He's been dropped altogether. So has been another National Democratic Alliance Cabinet minister, Jagmohan.
Those from Maharashtra are neither thinkers, nor professionals, nor, in any way, expanding the intellectual frontiers of the BJP. They are politicians mostly from the municipal and local body levels. So, no doubt the BJP expects to sweep the local body elections in Maharashtra -- but to build a national executive on the back of that talent?
It is clear that Gadkari wanted to end factionalism in the party and thought that he would be able to do so by making the national executive a rainbow coalition. So he has appointed Vasundhara Raje as the general secretary. But he has also appointed Bainsla, her greatest detractor and the biggest pain in her neck in Rajasthan during her tenure as the chief minister, as an 'other'. Bainsla represents the Gujjars in Rajasthan -- the caste in counterpoise to the largely Congress-leaning
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