The Big Story: Mr 56 inches

Much of the Narendra Modi sales pitch during the 2014 campaign rested in his image as a strong leader. The Bharatiya Janata Party held up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a contrast. A weak chief with almost no political base, Singh was often overruled not only by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi but also by his own ministers during his ten years as prime minister. Modi promised something completely different. The BJP’s victory in 2014 was largely due to Modi’s personal charisma so there would be no doubt that a government under him wouldn’t be pulling it different directions.

Or that was the plan. Recent events, point to something different bubbling underneath.

On Monday, in an interview with an unusually mild-mannered Arnab Goswami, the Gujarat strongman appeared to upbraid BJP MP Subramanian Swamy for his no-holds barred attack on Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan. Swamy’s public attack was one of the main reasons cited for Rajan’s angry June 18 announcement that he would not be available for second term.

Being careful not to take Swamy’s name, Modi said, “Whether it is in my party or not, still I think such things are inappropriate. This fondness for publicity is never going to do any good to the nation. People should conduct themselves with utmost responsibility. If anybody considers himself above the system, it is wrong.”

He also went on to praise Rajan calling him “patriotic” and certifying that he “loves India”.

If read at face value, this is remarkable. At the time, Swamy, a lowly Rajya Sabha member of Parliament, had publicly attacked the finance minister, Arun Jaitley and his aides. Matters had reached a pass where Jaitley had been forced to go on Twitter to defend himself from Swamy’s attacks.

Now, it seems even the prime minister disapproved of Swamy’s outburst. Of course, if both the prime minister and finance minister disapprove of Swamy, and he still managed to get Rajan out, that accords Swamy a surreal level of power.

More realistically, of course, it seems Swamy and his talent as a bulldog is being used to settle scores within the Union government and the BJP. After all, an essential part of politics is politicking. But when these fights take place in full public glare, conducted across social media and TV newsrooms, it might point to a greater rot than usual.

Modi had promised iron rule in Delhi. However, if he himself needs to use a TV interview to rein in a Rajya Sabha MP, it is not a good sign for the three years to come.

The Big Scroll
The 10 interesting bits from Arnab Goswami’s tame interview of Narendra Modi.

For the day’s biggest headlines, go check out The Latest.

Political Picks

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Punditry
1. If the United States, the world’s largest economy, can value its federalism and continue with state-driven taxes, why is India so keen to have a uniform Goods and Services tax, asks Prabhat Patnaik in the Telegraph.
2. Providing a basic income guarantee to all citizens makes a lot of sense intuitively. But the implementation cost in any country, including India, would be prohibitive, explains Maitreesh Ghatak in the Indian Express.
3. While the 2008 Nuclear Supplier’s Group meet saw the lifting of decades of technology sanctions against India, the 2016 Seoul meet had no gains for India. Pramit Pal Chaudhuri in the Hindustan Times explains how a more assertive China is the reason for this gap.

Don’t Miss

Aarefa Johri reports on the drought you didn’t hear about: Villagers in Gujarat know a good monsoon won’t bail them out.

“In these three years of dushkaal [drought], all our local lakes and rivers have completely dried up,” said Mahesh Aahir, a cotton farmer from Vijarkhi, a large village of 3,000 people in Jamnagar district. Right next to the village is Vijarkhi dam, a reservoir that used to supply water to at least six neighbouring villages before it dried up in 2013. “Since then, the local government has been assuring us constantly that our dam will be connected to the Narmada canals. But nothing has happened so far, and we have to depend on the tankers they send once a day.”