How Nitish got Modi to sing another tune in Bihar
As Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar stood up on Saturday to deliver his speech at the formal government event held at the Patna Veterinary College, Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked unflustered. After all, though Bihar is poll-bound, in a government function like that, only niceties were to be exchanged between him and Nitish. Or so he apparently expected.
But within a few minutes of Nitish’s speech; the prime minister beckoned Union power minister Piyush Goyal, who was seated to his right on the dais. A request was whispered to the minister’s ears; and Goyal got down from the podium and disappeared. When he returned after ten long minutes, Goyal carried a piece of paper with details of the Centre’s contribution in Bihar.
A man as meticulous as a mother helping her teenage kid with homework; Modi is known for having precise details at his fingertips, being to the point and never repetitive even once, notwithstanding the length of his speeches.
But on Saturday, Nitish managed to surprise him, as the Bihar chief minister went on “humbly reminding” the prime minister how critical projects in Bihar were languishing for the lack of New Delhi's attention, and how some of the projects, like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Patna that Modi inaugurated, were either operational or conceived long ago. Nitish left none in doubt that despite his veiled politeness, he was determined not to let the BJP mascot run away with brownie points in the run up to the Assembly polls. It was the meaning of his speech, if not the tone, that made the prime minister summon data that he apparently had left for his political rally in Muzaffarpur.
And Modi would have been nothing had he not known how to bounce back and counter-attack. When Nitish finished, Modi stood to deliver his 28-minute speech, which punched holes in what Nitish subtly suggested.
"The Bihar development programme needs a lot of money and assistance. I had earlier promised an aid of Rs 50,000 crore. But, I believe it will not be enough. I will give you much more but at the appropriate time,” the prime minister declared, taking Nitish's dare in hand. He elaborated how Bihar would get over Rs 3.75 lakh crore between 2015 and 2020 compared to just Rs 1.5 lakh crore it got during the 13th Finance Commission period (2010-2014). He spoke about the proposed expansion of the Barauni refinery and construction of a petro-complex, earmarking of Rs 5,000 crore for national highway projects, and also about the Union petroleum and natural gas ministry’s resolve to invest Rs 25,000 crore in Bihar, and the Centre’s commitment to set up a thermal plant in Banka, in addition to the plan for a major expansion in the information technology (IT) sector.
As a parting shot, Modi also referred to Nitish’s role as the railway minister and put in facts to embarrass the Nitish-Lalu alliance. Modi hinted at how much Bihar's railway projects had suffered in the past because the man (Read Lalu) who succeeded Nitish in the railway minister played politics as minister. Sarcastic and sage in equal ounces, Modi clearly hammered home the message that Nitish has joined hands with someone who derailed Bihar in the past.The prime minister also exposed the apathy of Bihar's leaders towards the state's needs and appeared to suggest that Nitish, by aligning with such elements, have forced Bihar on the backfoot.
A few hours later, when Modi addressed BJP’s political rally in Muzaffarpur on Saturday, the gloves were off. Modi announced to his massive crowd how Nitish was a man with poor DNA and tore into Lalu by claiming that RJD meant "rozaana jungle raj se dar (daily fear of jungle raj)".
The prime Minister also took digs at Nitish, throwing a sardonic volley at Nitish to share “how times have changed”. Once it was Nitish who said Modi is not welcome in Bihar and even kept Bihar off limits to him for ten years. “He said there was no need for me to campaign. Now the same man welcomes me. Has he been missing me all these 14 months? Let me tell him he need not miss me anymore. I have come and I will keep coming."
Times indeed have changed. But so has Bihar. The approval ratings of Nitish from the time he snapped ties with the BJP in May 2013 - and that of Modi when he won a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election last year — are things of the past. As Bihar braces for the crucial Assembly polls, likely to be held in October-November, a new and perhaps the final electoral war between Nitish and Modi is gradually unfolding.