One Take | As Oppn Guns for Ashwini Vaishnaw’s Head, Why BJP Steers Clear of UPA Route & Backs Its Netas

In 2015, as Congress demanded Sushma Swaraj’s resignation as External Affairs Minister on the grounds of her alleged closeness to former IPL chief Lalit Modi, Rajnath Singh intervened and said: “This is not the UPA government, she won aren’t resigned. And Swaraj never did.

Subsequently, in an interview to CNN-News18, senior Congress leader Ashok Chavan – who himself had to quit over the Adarsh ​​scam – said: “Our biggest mistake was to succumb to media trial as well as pressure from the BJP When they were in the opposition, it made us look guilty when we were not.

The list of UPA ministers who resigned on moral grounds was long – Pawan Bansal, Dayanidhi Maran, Shashi Tharoor and Ashwini Kumar. Privately, he protested as he pointed out that this was being done under pressure from the then opposition and that he was not guilty. The Congress later admitted that this was a mistake as it made the situation look like an admission of guilt, adding to the narrative built by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 – which continues to this day – that the UPA government was mired in corruption.

The BJP has learned from its rival’s mistake. Despite pressure from the opposition, sometimes united, he refused to buckle under the burden, brazen it out and ‘proof’ that his ministers were above board.

For instance, Nirmala Sitharaman, despite the Rafale allegations, stood her ground and the Supreme Court verdict resulted in a victory for the BJP. The same has happened to others like S Jaishankar, Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah. The latest case is that of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, with the Congress and most of the opposition demanding his head after the Balasore train accident.

Amid pressure from the opposition, BJP’s Amit Malviya said: “This is not the time to politicise. There have been many such cases when Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad were casualties and derailed during their tenure but they never quit.

BJP’s strategy has been that even if they want to remove a minister, they take time. It is usually never done under any pressure. The only exception was Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar.

The reason is simple. One, the BJP understands that if it continues to succumb to opposition pressure, it may end up looking like the UPA. Second, it will embolden those who want to call the present regime corrupt ahead of the 2024 elections.

The top leadership of the BJP knows that if resignation is inevitable, it will be done at its own pace rather than on the demand of the opposition. “The idea is to make it appear that the decision was taken by the prime minister and not the opposition.”

In the case of Vaishnav, BJP does not see any logic in his resignation. The CBI probe is a relief given the possible angle of sabotage. And no matter how much hue and cry, the BJP believes that the best damage control would be to learn the lesson and reform the minister rather than resign.