Subramanian Swamy is a political veteran, with an illustrious career spanning several decades. However, his tenure as a Rajya Sabha member seems to be ending in a rather unceremonious way. So, what changed in the past six years?
Swamy’s rise
Subramanian Swamy was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, which is no mean achievement in itself. But it didn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. He has been around in Indian politics for quite some time and people knew him as a long-time member of the Janta Party. In 2013, he joined the BJP and gained instant popularity within its fanbase.
Due to his activism in the Ram Setu and Ram Janmabhoomi cases, Swamy also proved his abilities and gained popularity amongst BJP’s young supporters.
Read more: People will always Remember Subramanian Swamy with Reverence for Saving the Ram Setu
Swamy shone as a Rajya Sabha member
When Swamy joined Rajya Sabha, he was expected to vax eloquence and take on the opposition while representing the BJP and the Modi government. For some time, he did a wonderful job in leading BJP’s narrative in the upper house of the Parliament.
It seemed as if the BJP and the Modi government had something big in mind for Swamy. He has ample knowledge of the Constitution of India, its economy, and global affairs. He has travelled a lot and also enjoys a lot of respect in different parts of the world. So, he was almost tailor-made to hold a top Constitutional post like the President of India.
Read more: Swamy on the RS Floor, Swamy likes to Provoke
However, things would soon go downhill.
What led to friction between Swamy and the Modi government?
Things didn’t go well between Swamy and former Union Finance Minister, late Arun Jaitley. He had criticised Jaitley’s policies as the Union Finance Minister. And as per The Print, the Swamy-Jaitley rivalry dated back to the 1990s.
However, PM Modi stuck with Jaitley. At the end of the day, Jaitley was a well-read man with excellent organisational skills. Jaitley’s organisational skills were next to none, and he had the ability to get in anywhere, from the posh localities in Central Delhi to the very grassroots. And this is exactly the kind of leadership that PM Modi needed for handling the Finance Ministry that plays a pivotal role in taking the country’s overall economic growth forward.
Swamy, on the other hand, is a one-man army and doesn’t have noticeable organisational skills. Despite all his knowledge and scholarly achievements, PM Modi couldn’t have made him the finance minister and therefore Jaitley was chosen over him.
Anyhow, Swamy was given a cabinet berth and things seemed to go fine despite his occasional criticism of Jaitley’s policies. Yet, things deteriorated after Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as the finance minister in the Modi cabinet. After Sitharaman was made the Finance Minister, he became openly critical of the Modi government.
He started attacking PM Modi over political controversies like the naming of Ahmedabad cricket stadium. Swamy also made some particularly unpleasant allegations against the Modi government over the Sino-India military standoff and seemed to criticise PM Modi over trivial and irrelevant matters.
Read more: The rather drastic fall of Subramanian Swamy
Swamy is therefore no longer popular with Prime Minister Modi’s huge support base. BJP workers and supporters rally behind PM Modi and Swamy’s utterances against him completely changes everything. He had joined Rajya Sabha with a lot of enthusiasm amongst BJP supporters, but the end of his tenure is turning out to be rather unceremonious for obvious reasons.