RAJNATH WAS KEPT IN DARK
As Home Minister, Rajnath Singh should have been privy to the decision to bring down the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir. But, strangely, he was kept in the dark and picked up the ‘breaking news’ on television, after reaching home for lunch.
At the time PM Modi was taking a call on the BJP's pull-out, Rajnath was busy in his office discussing with senior officials the security measures in J&K as the ceasefire was not being extended beyond the month of Ramzan.
Sources said Prime Minister Modi personally took the decision on of the BJP's withdrawal after discussing the security scenario with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval (73); later, Doval was sent to BJP President Amit Shah's bungalow to brief him on the withdrawal.
Doval, a 1968 batch IPS officer of Kerala cadre who rose to head the Intelligence Bureau, did not bother to brief Rajnath Singh, not even as as a matter of courtesy.
Home ministry officials say Doval behaves as if he is the internal security minister and keps overruling Rajnath Singh. But, the latter never protested, knowing fully well that the NSA is a blue-eyed boy of the Prime Minister.
Rajnath Singh had travelled to Jammu and Kashmir only a few days ago to discuss the security scenario and yet Doval did not find it necessary to brief him on the development. He may have acted on the PM's advice, not to bother Rajnath Singh, who is otherwise the official second in command in the government.
Rajnath may have been kept out of loop because he had in the past taken a nuanced, if not divergent, stand on multiple issues and the PM didn't want anything done by him that comes in the way of his own plan.
Only last Sunday, Rajnath Singh had pushed for extension of the unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir but the PM snubbed him.
This is not the first time that Prime Minister Modi has heaped insult on Rajnath Singh, who even swallowed the humiliation of the PM changing his home secretary without his knowledge.
Sources say the PM took the snap decision to withdraw support to PDP after Doval briefed him about Mehbooba Mufti’s plan to rush to the Raj Bhawan and resign, thus bringing an end to the coalition government.
Even the BJP leaders from Jammu who were summoned to Delhi for a special meeting in the party headquarters did not expect a snap decision as they thought it was to discuss arrangements for the upcoming visit of Amit Shah to Jammu this weekend.