After demitting office as BJP national president earlier this year, Union Health Minister J P Nadda moved slightly out of the limelight that is associated with the job of leading the country’s ruling party. However, with the government facing one of the largest protests of the past few years, the veteran leader has been pressed into action once again.
On Monday, as the police and the Rapid Action Force used tear gas and batons to stop thousands of youngsters trying to reach Parliament to demand the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and injured scores, Nadda became the government’s interlocutor. He met with the representatives of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP), requesting them to end their protest.
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The following day, he visited the RML and Lady Hardinge hospitals to meet the injured protesters and police personnel. Later on Tuesday night, the Health Minister and the Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Jitendra Singh, visited activist Sonam Wangchuk in a hospital in Gurgaon to find a way forward.
Nadda also addressed a press conference on Wednesday where he accused Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi of being selective in his accusations, pointing out that there were instances of paper leaks in states ruled by various Opposition parties too.
Considered an able and “soft” communicator, Nadda’s position as Health Minister made him perfect for the role of emissary, said a senior BJP leader.
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“Visiting the injured students in hospital, in his capacity as health minister, was not only the proper response to underline that the government views the situation with seriousness, but also good optics,” the leader said.
“Given his long-standing experience with student politics as well as his communication and negotiation skills — he had put these on display recently to ensure peace among party factions in Uttarakhand — he fits the bill perfectly,” he added.
Among the longest-serving BJP presidents, Nadda’s stature carries enough heft for the purpose. Fielding his senior Cabinet colleagues such as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh — often the government’s go-to person while reaching out to the Opposition — or Union Home Minister Amit Shah would have been “disproportionate” to the task at hand, the leader said.
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Another BJP insider also agreed, explaining that fielding too senior a leader would have suggested that the government had panicked and was giving too much importance to the protesters. Nadda, according to him, just about has the stature that shows the government is not “insensitive”, and yet fielding him is about not giving too much importance to Wangchuk and the CJP.
“Deploying senior faces such as the Union Home Minister, to whom the Delhi Police reports, could have been counterproductive; on the other hand, the Raksha Mantri as the face of negotiation could have added a sense of exaggerated urgency,” a BJP leader said.
The BJP could not have fielded its incumbent president, Nitin Nabin, for the job despite his long-standing experience as a Yuva Morcha leader as that would have added a “political dimension instead of a governmental one”, a leader said. It would have meant the BJP, rather than the government, was reaching out, he said.