In August, social media – first X, then Instagram – erupted in outrage over the government’s relentless ethanol push. The spark was the petroleum minister’s celebratory posts announcing India had achieved its 20 percent ethanol blending target years ahead of schedule. For car and bike owners already worried about falling mileage, this raised fresh fears about what the fuel mix would do to their ageing vehicle engines. 

The fury 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 most vocal ethanol evangelist and a driving force behind the national fuel mandate.

What began as anxious grumbling from vehicle owners soon snowballed. By the end of August, prominent right-wing accounts had joined the digital backlash against 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 how his two sons seemed to be prospering from this ethanol push. 

Why were accounts that once celebrated his highways and ethanol triumphs now baying for blood? In a system reputed to be tightly controlled, the attack signalled rare disquiet in the inner sanctum of power. Was someone higher up in the chain unhappy?

Gadkari called it all a “paid campaign”. “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 mention who was behind it all.

But Gadkari is no ordinary minister. In 11 years at the centre, he has built a reputation for political elasticity – rare in today’s BJP. His reach extends from RSS karyakartas to corporate boardrooms, from opposition leaders to regional satraps, from industry associations to global energy lobbies. Nicknamed India’s “highwayman” for his ministry’s visible achievements, he cultivates an image of a no-nonsense doer expanding the nation’s development story.

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

Meanwhile, the opposition has also chipped in. Earlier this month, the Congress held a press conference on the ethanol issue. Pawan Khera, the party spokesperson, accused Gadkari of “aggressively lobbying” for the ethanol blending policy, while flagging what he said was a serious conflict of interest: his two sons were making a killing in the very business of ethanol production.