By attacking Modi, Swamy is making BJP's life insufferable

It was uproarious laughter that greeted me when I met a minister at a function recently and asked him about the latest in-house problem which the BJP is desperately grappling with - Subramanian Swamy. "What did I tell you about him in Parliament that day. You remember? That man is simply incapable of anything constructive," said the minister.

The said conversation took place on April 29, 2016 and in less than a month-and-a-half, Swamy has proved the minister prophetic. He is turning out to be the worst nightmare of the government and the BJP and they just don't know how to control him.

Till his attacks were limited to RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, there was no furore. Perfunctory noise was made about how it was not right to target an institution in this manner, but in their heart of hearts, most in the ruling dispensation were fine with it.

Little did the BJP and the government know that it would boomerang so badly in such a short span of time.

Subramanian Swamy's attack on Rajan, or R3 as he calls him, was successful and it fuelled his desire to settle old scores once and for all. Without giving two hoots about the kind of embarrassment it would cause the government, Swamy, with his virulent tweets, launched a vicious attack on Jaitley and his bureaucrats.

The situation slipped out of control to the extent that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to Times Now, said, "No one is bigger than the party. If someone is making comments to seek publicity, then its wrong. I am very clear about this."

This statement sent out a clear signal and the people thought Swamy would get the message.

But in less than 24 hours, Subramanian Swamy did what many in his position would think through 100 times over.  

Swamy tweeted, "Friends tell me Arnab G is on his shows nowadays foaming in the mouth chanting muruga muruga. Must have been bitten by a mad unelectable dog."

The tweet made it clear that PM or no PM, Subramanian Swamy is now virtually on a warpath. The BJP leadership has been stunned into silence as everybody knows who about the "mad unelectable dog" he is referring to.

Only 24 hours after the PM's admonition, when finance minister Arun Jaitley was asked what he made of Swamy's tweet, he shot off a cryptic reply: "I can assure you that was not discussed in the Cabinet."

Not only this, Swamy followed up his "unelectable dog" jibe with a series of tweets expressing his unhappiness about the statement given by the PM in the interview.

According to sources within the party, senior leaders did try to reach out to him in order to avoid further embarrassment to the party and broker peace.

Then Swamy literally dropped a bomb on his own government, which has been facing a lot of criticism about the way it has chosen to measure the GDP. This tweet of his not only left the government red-faced, but also indicated that he is not averse to hitting out at PM Modi. On July 1, Subramanian Swamy tweeted:

"If i apply samuelson - swamy theory of Index numbers to Indias GDP calculation on RBI rates, media will scream anti party activities."

This tweet goes beyond its usual target and hits at the core of the Centre's claim of economic recovery. What is extremely embarrassing for the government is that the opposition has always been casting doubts over the way the Modi government is dressing up the numbers.

With his latest tweet, Swamy has, in a way, seconded their allegation. For the government, nothing could have been more embarrassing than this.

Though the Centre and the BJP didn't respond to the tweet, it was made clear that Swamy's antics are beyond their control. Later, an attempt was made to make him see sense and to avoid self-goals as far as controversies are concerned.

Swamy was even told that he is literally handing the Opposition issues on a platter.

Much to the relief of the government and his party, Subramanian Swamy tweeted later in the day that he intends to tweet less for a week.

"Now Ram temple, NH, Impleading in Swami Dayanand wp in SC, Aircel Marxis CSK ban etc requires me to concentrate. So few tweets for one week."

What is also being talked about in the party is that as Swamy, on the one hand, attacks the government simultaneously, he is ratchetting up the agenda of the Sangh Parivar. His tweet said that he will be busy with the Ram Temple issue.

In another tweet, he said that he was going to speak at VHP's Pran Pratistha Pooja on multi-dimensional terror.

Swamy's pandering to his core constituency remains steadfast, which will create more problems for the government or the party dealing with him.

With his tweet about not tweeting for a few days, both the BJP and the Centre must have heaved sighs of relief, but the bigger question for them is, for how long?

With the monsoon session of Parliament commencing on July 18, the Modi government's worries perhaps have only just begun as they don't know how to contain Swamy's Twitter bombs.