The man behind Modi’s divisive politics

May 5, 2024 3:39 am

Lok Sabha elections are going on in India. It will be confirmed in June whether the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sitting in power for a record third time. Although this leader who has been in power for a decade is in the discussion, a less discussed politician is often seen next to him. But it is this lesser-known leader who continues to play an important role in the extraordinary rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through strategy formulation. He is Union Home Minister Amit Shah of India.
Amit Shah is often referred to as the ‘second most powerful man’ in India. He is a longtime close friend of Modi. He gives various election-centric advice to Modi.

A staunch Hindu nationalist, this leader is well known to his supporters as Amit Bhai. He has seen BJP win countless times. He never became Prime Minister. However, he is an extraordinary organizer and strategist. He is a shrewd politician. Like Modi, he also does politics of division.

Amit Shah’s supporters consider him the ‘great protector of Hindu faith’. But those who dared to challenge him, saw his hostility.

Critics say Amit Shah is behind some of India’s most controversial laws, including revoking Kashmir’s partial autonomy and passing a new citizenship law. The new citizenship law is seen as highly discriminatory against Muslims.

While reporting on Amit Shah, the BBC spoke to his old friends and colleagues. People who knew him from his school days or from the beginning of his professional life, even stood by him during his imprisonment – said about him.

Amit Shah showed his mettle as a strategist in national level politics a decade ago, in 2014. Following his strategy then the BJP showed significant success in key states. For many years a BJP victory in Uttar Pradesh was considered an impossible task. But in the 2014 general elections, the party won an unprecedented 71 out of 80 seats.

Lawyer and former BJP politician Jatin Ojha has worked closely with Amit Shah for decades. He said, Shahr (Amit) brain is a gift from God. It is sharper than Chanakya.’ Chanakya is the legendary Indian strategist who was behind the first imperial expansion of the Indian subcontinent two thousand years ago.

Whether Amit Shah is friend or foe, everyone agrees that the leader uses his skills wisely during elections.

Amit Shah was behind the party’s success in the 2014 elections. As a result, BJP won historic victories in 2017 and 2022 assembly elections. In the 2019 general elections, the party won a landslide victory for the second time under his leadership.

Jatin Ojha said that he knew from the beginning that Amit Shah would lead one day.

He said, ‘I saw that spark in him, I saw that political acumen in him. I saw a horse going to win a big race.’

Devang Dani is a BJP councilor in Ahmedabad. He has known Amit Shah for more than 30 years.

Dani said, “He always gave priority to ensuring the victory of his candidate. Be it village council election or parliament election – he did not consider any election small. Amit Bhai thinks that every battle must be won. Because of this Modi and Shah, the party which got two seats in the 1984 elections got 303 seats in the 2019 elections.

Amit Shah was born on October 22, 1964, in Mansa, a small town in the state of Gujarat. His father Anil Chandra ran a small business manufacturing PVC pipes. His mother Kusumben was a housewife.

“Two wheels of one car”

Amit Shah met Narendra Modi for the first time in 1982, in Ahmedabad. Amit Shah had just joined the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological wing of the BJP. At that time Modi was an RSS propagandist. Modi would then advise his young colleagues to join the ABVP, the student wing of the BJP.

At one point Modi and Amit developed a good relationship. Both Modi and Amit Shah started to rise together. Supporters started calling them ‘two wheels of a car’. They are also compared to the two brothers Rama and Lakshman described in the Hindu epic Ramayana.

Kingshuk Nag, a senior journalist who worked as the editor of the Times of India in the early 2000s, said Narendra Modi can impress the public, he is in the front row. And Amit Shah is a shy person. He doesn’t want to be in the front row. He built his foundation from behind the scenes. Won the hearts of friends and followers, defeated opponents and rivals in elections.

But many critics do not want to talk openly about Amit Shah. Because, simply put, they fear Amit. Some of the bureaucrats said they were intimidated by his stern gaze, rough eyes and angry look.

Political upheaval in Gujarat

Amit Shah’s politics is in his own state Gujarat. Over the years he gradually became Narendra Modi’s right hand man.

Close associate RD Desai has known him since 1987. About Amit Shah, he said, “He is good at spotting talent.” He supports young people who see potential. But after entering politics, he did not contest any election for more than a decade and a half. Said, “First I have to build an organization.”

Amit Shah was first elected MLA of Gujarat in 1997. He was then chosen by Modi as a candidate from Sarkhez constituency. Later he retained the seat in the elections of 1998, 2002 and 2007. After the seat was dissolved in 2008, he moved to the neighboring Naranpura seat. Amit did not contest the 2014 general elections. However, in 2019, he was elected as a member of Lok Sabha from Gandhinagar constituency. He is also contesting this year’s Lok Sabha elections from this seat.

The communal riots in Gujarat in February 2002 and the events that followed brought closer relations between Modi and Amit Shah. India’s official commentary said that more than 1,000 people were killed in the riots. Most of the dead were Muslims. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at that time. He has been widely criticized for not doing enough to prevent the riots and killings.

However, Modi claims that he is innocent. The court also acquitted him from that case.

Months after the riots, the BJP won the assembly elections in a divided Gujarat. Amit Shah was then given the charge of minister. Several ministries were run under him.

The Supreme Court reprimanded the state police and counsel for negligence in investigating some cases related to the Gujarat riots. The state police and consuls worked under Amit Shah’s home ministry. The Supreme Court of India ordered the transfer of the trial of the two cases out of Gujarat.

The Gujarat government had also admitted in court then that there were some “errors” by the state police in registering the case and the prosecution in taking statements of witnesses.

Amit Shah’s role in the riots has also been the subject of accusations against him over the years. However, this hardline BJP leader has always denied those allegations. There was never a proper investigation into the allegations leveled against him.

Charges of murder and imprisonment

In 2008, Amit Shah was accused of extrajudicially killing Muslim civilians Sohrab Uddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bai in 2005. But Amit denied the allegations. He said the allegations are politically motivated. He was arrested in 2010 on charges of murder and kidnapping. Being arrested at that time was a loss for him. Because, until his arrest, it was thought that he would succeed Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. But it didn’t happen anymore. Instead he had to resign from the post of Home Minister of Gujarat. He was in jail for more than three months.

Granting Amit Shah’s bail plea, the court said he should leave Gujarat so that he cannot influence witnesses in the case.

A court acquitted Amit Shah in the case in December 2014, six months after Narendra Modi was elected Prime Minister of India. Justice MB Gosabi then said that he accepted that the charges against Amit Shah were politically motivated.

The politics of division

Like his leader and mentor, Amit Shah often talks about correcting ‘historical wrongs’. According to them, the ‘mistakes’ started from the time of India’s independence in 1947.

He sought to right the so-called ‘wrongs’ by revoking Kashmir’s special status and enacting the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The law has also been condemned by the international community. The enactment of the Act has led to an increase in violence against Muslims in India.

In 2019, he referred to illegal Muslim migrants as ‘termites’ and threatened to ‘throw them into the Bay of Bengal’. Human rights activists around the world and the US State Department criticized Amit Shah on this.

Amit Shah regularly says ‘we and them’ in election rallies. These ‘they’ are Muslims.

Jatin Ojha thinks that it is actually Amit Shah’s personal belief.

Oja said, ‘I really don’t know why this happened. But I saw it from the first day I met him. And to this day his anger, his prejudice and his resentment towards Muslims remain the same. His policy of hatred and exclusion remained the same. And it is very firm and rigid.’

BBC sought a statement from Amit Shah’s office in this regard. But no response was received. However, Amit Shah’s childhood friend Sudhir Darji could not agree with Jatin Oja’s statement. Sudhir said, he (Amit) never said or did anything against Muslims. His goal is to move forward together with everyone.

Allegations of corruption

Narendra Modi and Amit Shah often complain that their rivals are corrupt. However, in 2017, Amit Shah’s only son and businessman Joy Amit Shah was accused of corruption. News website The Wire published a report on his corruption.

It was alleged that Amit Shah’s son’s business increased 16 thousand times after BJP came to power. However, both father and son denied the allegations. The Wire was sued, calling the report false and defamatory. However, the case has not yet been settled.

In January 2021, opposition leaders accused Amit Shah of nepotism. The complaint arose after the son was appointed as the secretary of the Cricket Board of India.

While Amit Shah spoke up for his son, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remained silent. And some think that this shows how important Amit Shah is to Modi.

Future Prime Minister of India?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 73 years old and is physically fit. So Amit Shah is unlikely to be BJP’s prime ministerial candidate anytime soon. But when the question arises as to who will be the Prime Minister of the BJP after Modi, the name of Amit Shah comes to the fore.

Amit Shah, 60, currently serves as the Union Home Minister, but has been seen falling ill several times in recent years.

Amit Shah never expressed his desire to become Prime Minister. Nobody thinks that Amit Shah, who has been working with Narendra Modi for over four decades, will try to ace him.

Journalist Kingshuk Nag said, “He (Amit) is Modi’s right-hand man and commander-in-chief.” Modi trusts him completely. And it can be said that Amit Shah will never try to beat him.