Losing mileage: Gadkari's ethanol mix creates political rift and public ire

In August this year, social media – first X, then Instagram – erupted in outrage over the government’s relentless ethanol push. The storm broke soon after the petroleum minister’s celebratory posts announcing India had achieved its 20% ethanol blending target years ahead of schedule. Car and bike owners, already anxious about falling mileage, now feared what this new fuel mix would do to their ageing vehicle engines. Their anger was directed not only at the petroleum ministry or faceless oil corporations but, with particular venom, at one man: Union Minister Nitin Jairam Gadkari, the ethanol evangelist who has driven this national fuel mandate.

This digital outcry found support from unlikely fronts. By the end of August, popular right-wing accounts had joined the digital attack on the Minister, amplifying accusations of mindless imposition. Loyal bhakts, both named and anonymous, and even those within the pro-government ecosystem, surprisingly turned upon Gadkari, questioning–and revealing to the nation–how his two sons were prospering handsomely from this ethanol push. 

But why were right-wing social media handles that lauded Gadkari’s infrastructural triumphs and ethanol successes until recently, suddenly turning against him? In a system that is supposedly dictatorially-controlled, it was seen as disquiet in the inner sanctum of power. Someone higher up the political food chain wasn’t happy.

Gadkari called it all a “paid campaign” against him. “The social media campaign…was against ethanol, and was done to target me politically,” he said at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ (SIAM) annual convention on September 11. 

He didn’t, however, mention who was behind this political campaign. 

Gadkari is not just another cabinet minister. He is widely perceived as a man of unique political elasticity, a seeming rarity in today’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who has ties with all quarters. From hard-heeled Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) karyakartas to the richest business magnates, from industry associations to politicians across the opposition divide, from regional satraps to global energy circuits, he has a ubiquitous presence. In his 11 years in office, Gadkari’s reputation as “highwayman of India” rests on the visible achievements of his ministry, which he has never shied away from boasting.  His image is that of a tough-on-the-job, no-nonsense minister expanding India’s development narrative.

Within the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, he has long held an anomalous position, his name often invoked as the answer to the “If not Modi, then who?” question. 

This cultivated image held till Gadkari’s high-octane popularity encountered the ethanol breakdown. In the mere span of a month, his decades-long push for ethanol brought him into the unforgiving crosshairs of the public. 

What began as a flurry of conflict-of-interest allegations over his sons’ ethanol business gains has metastasised into a public trial of the man himself, with the internet digging up his lofty promises and outlandish claims. Gadkari calls it a political hit job, but murmurs in Nagpur and Delhi suggest something deeper: frictions between the powerful Modi-Shah duo in the Union government, and the RSS, and the unspoken question of succession.