Irrespective of the present company he keeps, Jaishankar is a quintessential product of that real or imagined Khan Market fraternity. His newly accredited centrality in the Modi regime tells us as much about the external affairs minister as about the continued indispensability of the KMG to any ruler wanting to govern this difficult land
The Indian Express has a reputation as a newspaper that practices, mostly, a kind of journalism of courage but it is also seen as a diligent chronicler of the winners and losers in the perennial power games that have characterized Delhi since the days of Hastinapur.
The newspaper’s annual compilation of 100 “most powerful Indians” is eagerly looked forward to by the purveyors of intrigue and intriguers in the Delhi durbar. The titillating charm of this yearly exercise has become even more pronounced in recent years because journalists have been shut out of access to the inner courtyards of the powerful. The 2023 list of “most powerful Indians” came out a few days ago. Expectedly, the all-powerful prime minister and his very, very powerful Union home minister occupy the first and the second slot. This is, after all, the shahenshah and shah regime.
However, most interestingly, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar has grabbed the third spot, ahead of the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud (No. 4), Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath (No. 5), and, even more significantly, ahead of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at No. 6. That in this Hindu-fied dispensation, the RSS boss should cede the No. 3 spot he occupied last year to a politically inconsequential ex-foreign service officer tells a consequential tale.
The only inference possible from Jaishankar’s No. 3 spot (up from his 15th rank last year) is this: that even in the much-touted New India, that old institution – variously called the Khan Market Gang (KMG) or the Lutyens’ Elite – is very much alive and kicking.
Irrespective of the present company he keeps, Jaishankar is a quintessential product of that real or imagined Khan Market fraternity. His newly accredited centrality in the Modi regime tells us as much about the external affairs minister as about the continued indispensability of the KMG to any ruler wanting to govern this difficult land. Another card-carrying member of the KMG, national security adviser Ajit Doval – a former police officer and intelligence chief – is also in the top 10….
https://thewire.in/politics/khan-market-gang-modi-jaishankar
After the truth-shower 