The BJP’S parliamentary board got a revamp, with the inclusion of six fresh faces and the most prominent exclusion being Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan. The decision–making body will now get the services from which BS Yediyurappa and Devendra Fadnavis. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who got the BJP to an unmatched second term in the state, is fierce exclusion after reports that he would land the coveted spot as the party’s decision-makers. 

The BJP’s reshuffled parliamentary board, including the first Sikh representative, highlights a generational and political movement in the highest realms of the BJP in the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah period. 

 The biggest shocker in the reshuffle is the omission of the former BJP chief and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Until now, the party’s former presidents always got a seat in the decision-making process. At a recent event in Nagpur, Mr. Gadkari said that politics nowadays was more about power play and that the thought of quitting politics struck him many times.

The other prominent Maharashtra BJP leader, Devendra Fadnavis, has landed a spot on the election committee. Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is also on the parliamentary board.

In a quite bizarre turn of events, the state of Karnataka has recently withdrawn criminal cases against many BJP Leaders. This means that these ministers are likely to escape trial due to this move irrespective of the law enforcement agencies advising that this move will be counter-productive.  The recommendation of the sub-committee headed by the Home Minster of the state Basavaraj Bommai led to these withdrawn cases. Another interesting facet of this whole scenario is the fact that the Director General of Police, the Inspector General of Police, the Director of Prosecution and the Government Litigation and Law Department has strongly advised against the same. Here are some of the prominent people cases against who have been withdrawn. First, the Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy and Tourism Minister C.T. Ravi for unlawful assembly and wrongful restraint in 2015 during the altercation between students of two communities in Hunsur. Second, the   MLA Anand Singh for criminal intimidation and assault on a public official along with damage to public property. Third, the Agricultural Minister, B.C. Patil for assaulting and abusing police personnel and damaging police vehicles in 2012. Fourth, Mysuru M.P. Pratap Singh for causing hurt to police personeel voluntarily in 2017 during Hanuman Jayanthi procession. These are just some examples of the cases which are being withdrawn. The Law Minister in a statement to News18 stated that this was a routine procedure and the same has been done to secure ‘public interest’.  The second reason stated was that of reducing the burden on the courts and as many of these cases involve small punishments. This comes in at a time where the Karnataka High Court stayed the proceedings against the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr. B.S. Yediyurappa in a distric court at Gokak for allegations of violation of the Election Code of Conduct.

In a recent set of events, the social media giant Facebook told the Congress Party that contrary to the belief that they have an alleged political bias, the company was wholeheartedly non-partisan in its approach. A statement was released by the company’s Public Policy, Trust and Safety Director, Neil Pottts responding to the concerns raised by Congress, he said that Facebook denounced all forms of bigotry and hate and will always strive to remain a platform where individuals can express themselves freely. He also stated that the platform took the political party’s allegations seriously and are working tirelessly to remain non-partisan was committed to ensure levels of integrity. This response was after the party accused the platform of seriously interfering in disrupting the social harmony on account of their inaction when it came to applying hate-speech rules over many BJP leaders and members. A similar pattern of inaction was also reported by the Wall Street Journal and the Time Magazine where the conduct of Facebook and WhatsApp came under the scanner in context of their bias and proximity to the ruling party BJP.  At this point in the debate, both the parties have alleged the other of colluding with the social media giant to sway the public opinion. While the BJP accused the platform and its employees of helping people ‘abuse’ the Prime Minister and the other senior minister, the Congress claims that they have taken a soft approach towards many BJP leaders when they flouted their hate-speech rules on the platform. It is not only Congress who wrote to Facebook but a three page letter was also forwarded by IT Minister Ravi Shankar which called out its bias and a letter was also sent twice by AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal on account of its hateful content. It remains to see whether the after this statement the platform will be cautious in its approach.