Narendra Modi cabinet 2.0: Rajnath Singh in the front, not at the centre

Despite emasculation of his position, Singh never lost his cool and responded with grace

The first indications of tension between Rajnath Singh and Narendra Modi were, not unexpectedly, denied by him vehemently. Asked if he regretted conceding primacy to Modi by joining the government, Singh told the magazine Governance Now in an interview: “I never hankered after primacy.” Referring to the BJP national executive in Goa just before the 2014 elections where Modi was declared the party’s face for the elections, he said: “You must have seen me conceding primacy to the country’s most popular leader as I chose to speak before him... In politics, the most popular leader gets primacy.”

But despite this,