This is a tale of how the combo of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah managed to completely sideline Sushma Swaraj.
Sushma belongs to the ‘Advani camp’ in the BJP and the first task of the Modi camp was to put the seniors in the Party including Advani, Jaswant Singh and Murali Manohar Joshi out of reckoning.
Naturally, Sushma tried her best to form a coalition against Modi within the Party albeit without success.
Modi and Amit Shah on the other hand could not do away with Sushma for she was the leader of the BJP in Parliament, a position normally earmarked for the future Prime Minister.
Since she was also quite an active and vocal activist, they decided that they would have to accommodate her in the Cabinet and maintain the façade of being neutral.
So, ultimately, she was made Minister for External Affairs. Now this is a very important post but why was it given to Sushma? Simply, because ever since he has become the Prime Minister, Modi has taken the onus of projecting India as a superpower on himself and is on a hectic schedule overseas.
Even though Sushma is accompanying Modi, she has been relegated to a mute spectator with Modi hogging all the limelight! Thus by placing her under his thumb, Modi has virtually made her a non-entity.
Sushma’s job as of now is currently restricted to only signing files and other routine paperwork.
Realizing that she needed an identity for herself and at the same time not get into trouble with the RSS, Sushma recently made the controversial statement that the ‘Bhagvad Gita’ should be made the national book of India.
Expectedly, the statement made news and gave Sushma her two minutes of fame. But how long can she keep it up?
