When Nitin Gadkari took over as BJP president, it was not just a generational shift in the party, but an effort to stop the internal haemorrhage in the BJP. It was felt that Gadkari would bring an outsider?s healing touch to a party that was not dealing with its second loss in a general election with any degree of grace. His lack of experience of central politics was his greatest recommendation. It has been quite an eventful six months for Gadkari, as he tells Nistula Hebbar about his new job, his old one and why he feels he will fight Lok Sabha polls in 2014
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members recall a particular anecdote when asked their opinion about their new president. A group of partymen from a cow belt state had gone to meet Nitin Gadkari to present a proposal for a building to house the party headquarters on land allotted to them by the state government. When they asked the central unit to contribute Rs 2 crore for the building, they were told by Gadkari to use 20% of the plot for commercial purposes and self-finance the project. The group, for whom ceding any land was sacrilege in good old north Indian common sense, came out bemused and, needless to say, a little shocked by the suggestion.
Relaxing at his home in Nagpur?s old quarter, in an area appropriately called Gadkariwada, the BJP president is complacent about his effect on a party that is still considered a largely north Indian one. ?That was the most practical thing I could have suggested. In fact, that?s what we did in the Nagpur press club,? he laughs. But didn?t it worry him that he was considered a little too businesslike and less a politician? ?Politics is the same, wherever you are from. Whatever anyone says, it is about ideas and making them work,? he says. ?My philosophy, which I told a reporter who questioned me about how the Mumbai-Pune expressway could get made, is that where there is a will there is a way, where there is no will there are committees, commissions, meetings and memos.? His straight talk at the party?s Indore convention, exhorting senior leaders to extend their shadow rather than curtail others, went down quite well, after four years of Rajnath Singh?s careful use of the Hindi language. ?Even when I was the chief of the party in Maharashtra, I would draw up annual confidential reports of every team member and they would be held accountable for whatever their responsibilities were,? he says.
At a rally during the inaugural, however, business talk is suspended and Gadkari speaks of how Patel and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar have been too busy with cricket to do anything for the people. Some ribald ribbing follows, the crowd lapping it up. ?Here, this works,? he says with a smile as I point out that this is different from his persona in Delhi. The temperature is soaring and Gadkari sips nimbu paani while waiting for his turn to speak, not to repeat what happened with him during a rally in Delhi. A month after this rally, BJP wins the panchayat polls in the area.
As the crowd drifts away to eat the lunch provided as part of the festivities, we are back at his home, where I tuck into home-made bhelpuri and sweets.
Gadkari abstains, citing a weight loss regime.
His home, in the old quarter of the city, is in the shadow of the RSS? headquarters, a fact which people say helped him get the job of BJP president. Gadkari dismisses this talk, saying, ?That is just an impression; it is wrong. It is only among the media in Delhi that they think anybody can be parachuted into this job. In Nagpur, ask anyone?Hindus, Muslims and even rowdy elements?they have all met me at some point.? A trust headed by him has sponsored at least 1,300 heart operations among the Muslim community.
But it is a fact that Gadkari has not contested elections and remains a leader of the Upper House in the Assembly.
?Circumstances were such,? he says, adding, ?But I will contest Lok Sabha polls from either Nagpur or nearby in 2014.?
Gadkari?s start in politics had been from Nagpur as an RSS and BJP worker, but in the Maharashtra of the 1990s and after, he came up against the powerful duo of Pramod Mahajan and his brother-in-law, former Maharashtra chief minister Gopinath Munde. The two ran Maharashtra for the BJP, with nobody to gainsay them. Gadkari remained on the margins, mostly ensuring that the party did well in Vidarbha in the Assembly polls. When the BJP-Shiv Sena government came to power, Gadkari was made PWD minister. His moment of glory was when he completed the Mumbai-Pune expressway, raising capital from the markets ?with just Rs 5 crore in government coffers?.
Gadkari, in fact, states with relish that it was this feat that got him his big break in business. ?I was looking for investment for my ethanol unit, and an industrialist told me that with my record, I was a good credit risk,? he recalls. In a country where politicians, journalists and policemen are routinely denied credit cards, Gadkari was overjoyed.
In all this talk of business we almost forget that he heads India?s principal opposition party. ?It is only the media that feels we are under siege. True, we lost the elections, but we are running the government in nine states and have more people?s representatives than the Congress,? he says. He has, however, not yet come up with any big ticket idea for any sort of political revival of the party, except asking partymen to adopt a cause and ‘connect’ with people?a programme he calls antyodaya or welfare of the pankti ka antim aadmi in society.
?I am convinced this is the only way to change anything about politics in the country,? he says. His rural jobs programme on the outskirts of Nagpur is an example he cites frequently. Comparisons with AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, however, irk him. ?What I do has no reference to Rahul Gandhi,? he clarifies.
His lifestyle is simple; he lives in a three-floor building that also houses his offices, political as well as business. Like US president Barack Obama, his mother-in-law is also part of his household. In Delhi, rather than shift into a Lutyens Zone bungalow, he has taken up a flat in Adishwar building in central Delhi.
Stylistically, Gadkari is as different from your average BJP president as chalk and cheese? more comfortable in pants than a kurta pyjama; more comfortable with management jargon than the Sanskrit shlokas his predecessor Rajnath Singh used to spout. His frequent use of desi pungent homilies like wondering whether Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru was the Congress’ son-in-law to be shown leniency have created ripples in the carefully calibrated world of political rhetoric.
The party appears to be adapting to Gadkari slowly. Recently, he took off for a vacation in Europe with his family in the middle of a crisis in Jharkhand, where his party was supporting the government. In the past, leaders would have torn him apart with glee, but now they talk of his chain of command?people Gadkari has authorised to take decisions on his behalf.
So is corporatisation of politics the new big idea really? Will that be Gadkari?s lasting legacy to the BJP? The man himself appears too busy to talk of legacies just yet. ?I?m not thinking beyond the Bihar elections yet,? he says. Little steps, another management concept, springs to mind.