Newsmaker: Meet Pralhad Joshi, a minister who needs to step up his game

Poor Pralhad Joshi. The just gone-by Monsoon session had been a complete wash-out and while no one is blaming him, as parliamentary affairs minister, for it, the fact is the sheen of the job he holds has worn off a bit.

Parliamentary affairs ministers, arguably, have among the worst jobs in the world -- they have to be pleasant to political rivals they can’t stand, have to beg, plead, and cajole their own party colleagues for presence in the House, must have the rulebook memorised to the last comma and full stop, and the political and government authority to offer IOUs to members of friendly parties in return for backing legislation. They need to have an equable temperament, for if they are hot-headed and join the debate they can become part of the problem, not part of the solution. As parliamentary affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj got the ultimate accolade: the Lok Sabha speaker who was elected to the House from bitter political rival CPM, Somnath Chatterjee, was on record as saying she was one of the best parliamentary affairs ministers India ever had. She was helpful and pleasant at all times, even when the Opposition was behaving badly.

Pralhad Joshi could not resist hitting out at the Opposition for disrupting Parliament, which has seen a lot of business being transacted but with minimal debate. The PM himself had to ask for details of BJP MPs present in the Rajya Sabha when Bills were passed. That should have a salutary effect on BJP MPs’ conduct in the Upper House in the future but says little for Joshi’s authority in getting his own flock together.

But Joshi’s political history suggests an enviable lack of ego in all his dealings. He rose to become the BJP's state unit president (from July 2012 to January 2016), but even in that influential position, had no difficulty in taking directions from B L Santhosh, currently in the BJP as national organising secretary but the powerful pole of power in Karnataka. The Karnataka unit of the BJP had three Brahmin leaders who were immediately identifiable — Anantha Kumar, Anant Kumar Hegde, and Joshi. Of them, Ananthakumar’s rise to power was the most rapid; he became Union minister in both Vajpayee and Modi regimes. Even Anant Hegde became a minister at the Centre. It took an inordinate amount of time for Joshi to get out of Karnataka politics and travel to the Centre. The BJP sources say although he began as a protégé of Anantha Kumar, his further rise in politics was stymied by Anantha Kumar who did not want caste rivals to emerge.

His rise in politics began in 1994 when Uma Bharti led a group of people in an attempt to hoist the tricolour at the Idgah Maidan in Hubli on August 15, defying the prohibitory orders (the matter of ownership of the Maidan was subjudice). Ten people died in the resulting violence and the police firing that followed. Pralhad Joshi was among those who led the charge. The Idgah Maidan agitation helped the BJP gain political ground in the state and the party has been winning in the Dharwad constituency  — that Joshi represents — since 1996. His first Lok Sabha attempt was in 2004 that he won defeating the Congress’ B S Patil. He has won three consecutive elections from that constituency since, having won the 2009 elections by the second-highest margin in all 28 constituencies in Karnataka. His rival from the area, Vinay Kulkarni from the Congress, used to be arguably better known and more popular, but in the last Lok Sabha election, Joshi defeated him by a margin of over 200,000 votes.

Joshi’s name was mentioned in despatches as a possible B S Yediyurappa successor when the BJP replaced the stalwart. But he played down the reports. "Though he (Yediyurappa) is aged, he is functioning efficiently. And, there has been no discussion about leadership change keeping his age as the factor. There is no vacant position as far as the chief minister is concerned, there is no question (of leadership change)," he had said in response to a question. If he had become CM, Karnataka would have had the first Brahmin chief minister since 1988.

Among all his other charges — he is also minister for coal and mines — it is parliamentary affairs that is politically the most crucial. But to make a success of his job, he may have to hone his people skills a bit more. At 59, he still has time.