Shortly after Covid struck India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘thaali-clapped’ to herald in the nationwide lockdown, people started asking about Amit Shah, with some optimistic anti-Amit types even venturing, “Is he alive?” There were rumours that the stout redoubtable Amit Shah was unwell and, therefore, off the radar. But, then, much to the heartbreak of zillions of heartbeats, Shah turned up fit and fine and people went to bed afraid to dream again.

Yes, Amit Shah is not every man or woman’s smiley! And when he fails, it’s glee and a happy ‘I told you so!’ Shah’s latest failure is the Assam-Mizoram faceoff, which left half a dozen killed and more than few injured. ‘Interior minister Amit Shah squarely to blame’ read a headline. The Home Minister, it appeared, was not at home dealing with ‘Home’. The complete breakdown of law & order and Shah's failure to calm things is tantamount to constitutional failure. Any lesser mortal, and he/she would have faced the firing squad – sent packing to the barracks, with minimum rations, so to speak.

Not Amit Shah. He’s got the cat’s nine lives, and whiskers, too. August 5, 2019, Amit Shah stood up in Parliament and abrogated Article 370 rendering Jammu & Kashmir asunder in the wilderness this side of the LOC in one fell swoop. ‘Whither article 35?’ stunned shocked Kashmiris asked. Of course, the crores who voted BJP in 2014 and 2019 compared the abrogation to the conquest of Everest. But to the Kashmiri it was Amit Shah’s biggest blunder to date, one that would return to bite him in the butt!

So far it’s not happened, as predicted, but people are fingers crossed and cautious optimism. Shah probably bit more than he can chew. Maybe, who knows? The India map going with the WHO dashboard enumerating latest Covid deaths and vaccination numbers doesn’t show Jammu & Kashmir as an integral part of India, and Shah’s Home Ministry hasn’t spotted the glaring “mistake”, yet.

Shah’s formidable reputation is built on Jammu & Kashmir truncated, and stunning election victories, which cemented the title ‘Chanakya’ on his leonine head, albeit missing the shaggy hair of the shaggy beast who’s King of the Jungle.

Amit Shah is often credited with the BJP’s election victories, in the 2014 general elections, and his role in sweeping the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls of 2017. But, then, after that, there was a series of electoral defeats which left the BJP floundering, and people wondering whether the ‘Chanakya’ was no longer ‘Kautilya.’

Now, after West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Modi-Shah juggernaut, doesn’t look invincible. The drubbing it received at the hands of the Trinamool Congress was humiliating. Mamata Banerjee worsted Amit Shah and Narendra Modi in such a manner that Modi no longer looks the victor, he’s reduced to a pale shadow of his former winning ways.

And Mamata Banerjee is in the place where Narendra Modi used to be in 2013. How things have changed! Ask Amit Shah and he’ll burst an artery. Is Amit Shah still Modi’s favourite minister, and No.2? The left or right hand of Modi, whichever hand Modi fancies? Of course, Shah has got the additional Cooperation portfolio, but does that mean he commands the same respect he used to?

Next year is when Shah’s big tests will come. In Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur. Uttar Pradesh is the big one. Lose UP and the Modi-Shah combine might as well take the hint and call in the packers & movers. Both of them have baggage enough to ‘discomfiture’ the best of the lot.

Another Amit Shah failure was the mishandling of the Shaheen Bagh standoff which culminated in the horrendous northeast Delhi communal riots that left 54 killed and hundreds injured. Delhi Police is under the direct supervision and control of the Union Home Ministry, but the Delhi police not only failed in doing a fair job, it also appeared partisan, before, during and after the riots.

And as if these were not enough, Shah and his ministry went and repeated the same mistakes when handling the farmers protests, especially on Republic Day 2021, when the protests turned violent and unthinkable things were done to the tricolour atop the Red Fort.

Delhi Policemen were set upon and a protester died. The farmers standoff at the “borders’ continues to this day, and who is to blame if not Amit Shah and the Ministry of Home Affairs? The problem with Amit Shah and the Union Home Ministry is that both allow things to fester and, then, when things get out of hand, they throw up their arms in abject surrender.

Modi’s favourite modus operandi is to allow things to slide – whether it’s CAA, Shaheen Bagh, farmers’ protests or Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 – and only then pick up the pieces. It’s a dangerous kind of ‘MO’. One of Shah’s gargantuan failures is that despite being Modi’s closest advisor, he couldn't guide Modi to do better than how he has done so far. Shah’s mistakes are not gaffes, and his failures spell blunder! (IPA Service)