Subramanian vs Subramanian: BJP will find it hard to rein in Swamy

It was Dr Subramanian Swamy's Twitter bomb which exploded on social media on a quiet Wednesday morning, and had the BJP scurrying for cover.

Fresh from what he calls his "victory against RRR" (Raghuram Rajan), Swamy posted a series of tweets at around 7.30am onwards, which created a flutter not only within the party but also in the government.

For the government, which is already firefighting the exit of Rajan, the timing of these tweets couldn't have come at a worse time.

Swamy started the day by tweeting:

"Who said to US cong on 13/3/13 the US should act against India to defend US pharmaceuticals interests? Arvind Subramanian of MoF. Sack Him"

This tweet was followed by: "Guess who encouraged Congress to become rigid on GST clauses? Jaitleys economic advisor Arvind Subramanian of Washington DC"

What made matters worse was Swamy's sound byte post these declarations.

Subramanian Swamy said: "Why can't we have someone who is closer to our ideology home? I have a list of 27 people and I will set them right."

His on-camera reaction and tweets created a catch-22 situation for the BJP which didn't know where to duck for cover. The party immediately issued a directive to its spokespersons not to speak on this issue at all.

At 2 pm, BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma held a presser and distanced the party from the statements made by Subramanian Swamy and called it his own "personal view". The party was further embarrassed by the field day which the opposition had at the expense of the BJP, when Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh tweeted, "Swamy now guns for Arvind Subramanian Economic Advisor to NDA. Target is Arun Jaitley not Arvind Subramanian".

The tone and tenor of Mr Swamy's sound byte further exacerbated the situation and raised a bigger question.

Who is Swamy gunning for? And why?

There is a significant section within the party which believes that all these outbursts are aimed at Union finance minister Arun Jaitley. This camp feels that by attacking the chief economic advisor, Arvind Subranmanian, the position of Arun Jaitley itself will become very awkward.

Also read: Subramanian Swamy's war is not against economists, but the Indian economy

Apart from this, sources within the party feel that Subramanian Swamy and couple of his well wishers are of the opinion that only a particular candidate has to be pitched for the plum post of RBI governor and anyone else who stands a chance for the post, their opportunities will be strategically scuttled, come what may.

It is said that after Raghuram Rajan's announcement to exit RBI, Arvind Subramanian was also in the race. By raising insinuations reminiscent of the ones he had raised against Rajan, Swamy feels that he not only ruin Arvind's chances but also, and more specifically, embarrass Jaitley as well.

A senior BJP leader conceded that though the reckless tweets and sound bytes are creating the image of a "Super MP" for Subramanian Swamy, the Rajya Sabha MP has to realise that he is part of the ruling dispensation and can't just run amok. Also Raghuram Rajan's case was different than Arvind Subramanian's.

In Rajan's case, an influential section of the RSS was not happy with the RBI governor, while many ministers in the Modi government were not pleased with his rigid stance on rate cuts and that a case was building against him anyway. It so happened that Swamy joined the muted chorus against Rajan while it was at the peak.

But such is not the case with Arvind Subramanian. The senior leader, on condition of anonymity, said, "Swamy has to get over his fixation on Jaitley".

Also read: Raghuram Rajan's gone, so who's next on Swamy's hit list?

The government's response, put forward by finance minister Arun Jaitley, by its tone and tenor was clearly indicative of how it intends to deal with this issue. Jaitley said, "From the point of discipline among Indian politicians: to what extent should we attack those whose discipline and constraints of their office prevent them from responding?"

Then Jaitley said, in what was clearly a message to the Swamy camp, "And he (Swamy) has done it more than once".

It was clear that the Arun Jailtey side has sent an unmissable signal to the Subramanian Swamy camp that just because it has been more than tolerant of the latter's antics, it doesn't mean that it will keep on doing more of the same. However, that in turn has put the party in a precarious position as Swamy is known for not taking any threats lying down.

When Subramanian Swamy joined the BJP, a senior leader voiced the classic "camel nose in the tent dilemma" of the party behind that much debated move. How it intends to wriggle out of it would be interesting to watch.