Nitin Gadkari is an outlier in Narendra Modi’s cabinet— a minister who has retained his autonomy, is getting work done, and is being noticed for it. The two have a turbulent history, at the centre of which lies the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Gadkari, despite facing copious allegations of malfeasance, is the RSS’s favourite son, while Modi has long chafed at the organisation’s efforts to control him. The result is a subterranean rivalry playing out in the RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the government. In Nagpur, the RSS’s home, the accepted truth is that if the RSS decided to replace Modi as the prime minister for any reason, it would choose Gadkari to take his place. Also in this issue: Makepeace Sitlhou on queer relationships in Mizoram under the shadow of the church; Hartosh Singh Bal on the RSS’s dangerous position on separate religion status for the Lingayats; Kingshuk Nag on the BJP-TDP break-up; Dale Luis Menezes on the uneasy history of caste and religious conversions in Goa; Soumya Sankar Bose’s photographs present a psychological exploration of the LGBT community in eastern India.