New Delhi, Oct. 27 (The Telegraph): Arun Shourie is no longer a party member - that's the fig leaf the BJP waved tremulously a day after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee favourite and Narendra Modi backer-turned-baiter likened the present government to the "Congress plus a cow".

By implication, therefore, the BJP did not have to answer or account for the barbs that Shourie, a former economist and editor and now an author, darted at its Prime Minister.

When BJP president Amit Shah embarked on an elaborate, tech-driven membership campaign where prospective and existing members had to signal their intent to join or rejoin through a missed call to a designated number, Shourie was not among them.

"He had the option of renewing his membership with a mere call. He chose not to, so he is no longer associated with us," a BJP leader said, adding the former disinvestment minister in the Vajpayee government was not someone he could trifle with.

Asked at a news conference today about Shourie's remarks, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said: "People do not associate with them, that's not how people perceive Modiji. Even you media people say Modiji is a strong PM. It is certainly not the party's opinion. Beyond this, I do not wish to make negative comments against anyone."

Internally, the BJP noted how Shourie's diatribes "coincided" with significant dates. In May, he had fired a volley of shots across Modi's bows days before the government marked its first anniversary. He alleged that Modi's economic policies were "directionless", investments had not picked up, the Make in India drive would not take off without ushering in labour reforms and the claim of a projected 10 per cent growth rate was "hyperbole".

Yesterday at a book launch, Shourie said people had already begun missing the Manmohan Singh era and the only way to characterise the Modi government's policies was "the Congress plus a cow".

Speaking at the unveiling of former Business Standard editor-in-chief T.N. Ninan's The Turn of the Tortoise, Shourie termed Modi's PMO as the "weakest ever" and said there was a "great centralisation of functions, not power".

This time, he has opened his bottle of acid during the Bihar polls where the BJP is fighting with its back to the wall against the alliance of Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar. The party's campaign has been fronted by Modi and bolstered by his Sancho Panza, Shah, so the stakes for the duo are the highest. Shourie pointedly stressed yesterday that industrialists, regarded as Modi's biggest cheerleaders, were "afraid" of speaking against his government.

A source close to Modi said: "They are not afraid. The truth is most industrialists cannot access the PM and kowtow before him for favours because his fundamentals are clear. If an industrialist meets him to give a clear, realistic and time-bound blueprint for investments, he will meet him. If it is to seek favours from the government, the answer is a no. That's what industrialists, used to decades of state patronage, resent."

Shourie has been a different kettle of fish in his approach to Modi. As early as 2012 - when the BJP was debating if Modi's Gujarat baggage could be a liability in declaring him its prime ministerial candidate - Shourie started to say good things about him.

Shourie endorsed Modi's "economics" saying it placed delivery over populism. In 2013, when the deed was done and Modi was announced the prime ministerial nominee, Shourie declared he was the "only viable candidate in the party".

The honeymoon soured a wee bit when Modi was putting his first cabinet in place last year. As rumours swirled over the induction of "talented technocrats" and "outsiders" - by then Shourie had been dumped in this club - a whisper campaign started against him and his propensity for "loose talk" and offering "gratuitous" advice.

Shourie's quotable quotes against BJP biggies - he had described Rajnath Singh as "Alice in Blunderland" when he headed the party - were dredged up to "prove" he could not be trusted with his tongue.

Nothing more was heard about Shourie until he took on the Modi government in May this year.

A senior BJP leader was a rare one who sounded charitable today about Shourie. and tangentially critiqued Modi for his "lack of outreach" to "gifted" leaders. "I have interacted with Shourieji. He has a fine brain and is full of ideas on governance and economics. I wish the PM engages with him more often," the leader said.

Modi once said he met Shourie "now and then".

Photo credit: The Telegraph