Amit Shah is back in action, reasserting his image as the second most important leader of the current regime after staying in the background for months.
The first anniversary of the second Narendra Modi government has seen the Union home minister all over prime-time television reprising his earlier avatar as the aggressive advocate of the ruling party.
For the past few months, Shah was conspicuous by absence from the frontline, leading to questions such “where is Amit Shah?” The speculation turned so feverish that Shah last month had to issue a clarification saying he was “absolutely healthy” to counter “rumours” about his health.
“If Mamataji wishes that the BJP should run the affairs in Bengal, I promise her wish will be fulfilled soon...,” Shah said in an interview to News 18 TV on Monday, virtually seeking to announce his return as a fighting fit lieutenant of Modi.
He was responding to questions over the recent spat with the Bengal chief minister over tackling Covid-19.
Shah has appeared on several news channels to give interviews to mark one year of Modi’s second term. The government and the BJP, with Shah leading from the front, celebrated the occasion despite the pandemic afflicting and taking lives.
While Shah tried to play home minister to the nation in most interviews and sought to laud every chief minister for the united fight against the coronavirusm, shed the niceties when it came to Bengal and Mamata Banerjee.
Shah donned the role of the party’s principal poll campaigner and hit out at Mamata. Accusing Mamata of hurling Bengal into chaos, he insisted the BJP would form the government when the Assembly polls are held next year.
As president of the BJP in the first tenure of the Modi government, Shah had been credited for crafting poll-winning strategies. He had led poll battles from the front, armed with divisive ideological issues associated with the BJP.
After the drubbing in the Delhi polls early this year that came on the back of the blow in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, Shah began retreating to the background. Despite being responsible for the law and order in the capital as home minister, Shah was not seen at the frontline.
The battle against Covid-19 in March too failed to bring out the home minister although his ministry is supposed to be the nodal ministry to coordinate with states. Amid speculation, occasional pictures of Shah holding meetings in his North Block office were pushed in the media.
In early May, Shah issued a statement claiming that he was “absolutely healthy” and preoccupied with managing the Covid-19 crisis, seeking to indirectly provide a reason for his absence from the frontline. Since then, Shah’s visibility had started increasing and seemed to have hit the peak as the second Modi government completed one year on May 30.
In the interviews, Shah has been seen dominating the questioners and having his way in claiming “historic” achievements of the Modi government, starting from 2014. His presence has been so emphatic that BJP chief J.P. Nadda and even other ministers trying to hail the achievements of the Modi government have been sidelined from the mainstream media.
On Covid-19, he said India under Modi had fared much better than developed nations and firmly defended the idea of sending the migrant workers home now when infections were spiking.
He said the lockdown was used to prepare the health infrastructure in the states. He acknowledged that the migrants were deliberately not allowed to go home early since the infrastructure was not ready.
Asked about suggestions from many economists and Rahul Gandhi to transfer cash to the bank accounts of the poor to battle the crisis, Shah bluntly rejected it and claimed the idea had been defeated in the people’s court.
“Even before the election (2019), he (Rahul) had floated this scheme with the name Nyay. The people of the country, however, rejected it,” Shah said and ridiculed the Congress MP for remaining stuck with the idea.
