Truth about Nitish Kumar and Modi is far from simple
A day after he skipped a luncheon meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, an event called primarily to project Opposition unity, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was in the company of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a lunch hosted in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth on May 27. He later held a one-on-one meeting with the PM.
It set tongues wagging, sparking speculations about a political realignment just when Nitish’s key ally in Bihar, the RJD, is seen on the back foot by allegations of inappropriate financial behaviour by Lalu Prasad and his family members.
As in the past, Nitish has rejected such speculations, asserting that no political meaning should be attached when a CM meets the PM. Though the BJP too internally admits that there’s a remote possibility of Nitish breaking off with the RJD, they are leaving no stone unturned to woo him.
When Nitish held a separate meeting with the PM, seeking his intervention on the “burning issue” of Ganga siltation, Modi showed alacrity and promised to send a team of experts to Bihar to examine the issue before June 10, as Nitish had desired.
The BJP sees a silver lining in the fact that Nitish, despite sharing a good relation with RJD boss Lalu, has distanced himself and his party from the corruption charges levelled against RJD’s first family. Incidentally, the income tax department has summoned Lalu’s MP-daughter Misa Bharti to explain several property deals which are alleged to be benami.
For now, Nitish has offered a straight bat. “These are all allegations. I’m unaware about the facts of the case and don’t comment on allegations and counter-allegations,” the CM told mediapersons.
“You need to know the politician that Nitish is to understand why he’s doing what he is,” says a former JD(U) minister considered close to him. “It’s a strategy that has always paid dividends. Combining it with his credentials of man of good governance, Nitish has carved a national stature for himself, which is hugely disproportionate to his individual legislative strength.”
"Nitish heads a party with only two Lok Sabha MPs and just 71 MLAs in 243-Member Bihar House. Yet, he is considered prime ministerial material because he sharply differs from all other frontline socialists. Nitish does not promote family in politics, nor does he face any corruption allegations. To top it all, he is perhaps the only one among the socialists who has delivered good governance and initiated path-breaking measures like total prohibition,” he said.
During his 17 years of fruitful alliance with the BJP, there were numerous occasions when Nitish refused to toe to the NDA script. Nitish greatest act of defiance was seen when he refused to back the NDA nominee and made his party vote for Congress nominee Pranab Mukherjee in the 2012 presidential polls.
He even opted to risk his government in Bihar and broke off ties with the BJP when his insistence on a secular and liberal NDA PM candidate yielded him Narendra Modi.
Nitish also broke out from the Mandal club and left the socialists squirming in March 2010 by backing the progressive Women’s Reservation Bill without demanding a quota within quota and ignored the fact that his stance angered fellow Mandal politicians, including then JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad.
“Barring the 2014 Lok Sabha polls when the Modi wave swept everyone away, Nitish has stood tall among the socialists in an era when other Mandal politicians like Lalu, Mulayam and Sharad have struggled to stay relevant because their ‘caste-alone’ policy suffered diminishing returns,” said the JD(U) man.
Contrary to them, Nitish understands contemporary trends better and balances his Mandal methods with a boost of caste-neutral messages like prohibition and demonetisation, to win political goodwill. The BJP knows it will be difficult to repeat their 2014 performance in Bihar — the NDA had then won 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats — without Nitish by their side.
Besides, the coming together of Nitish and Lalu and their combined performance in the 2015 Assembly polls has already left the BJP pondering in Bihar. The party is clearly hoping that Nitish — having already extended issue -based support (on demonetisation) to the Modi government in the past — may finally think of coming back to the NDA instead of carrying on with Lalu, whose past is always a baggage for an alliance partner like Nitish.
But it’s easier said than done, as Modi is the person whose elevation as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate had once forced Nitish to severe his 17-year-old links with the BJP in June 2013. No wonder, the BJP is targeting Nitish’s clean credentials since the allegations against Lalu’s family surfaced. The BJP internally believes that Nitish may find it difficult to sustain ties with Lalu.
Apparently, wishing a storm on a sea gone placid, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi has insisted that the BJP was closer to Nitish’s heart than Lalu is. A section of JD(U) leaders also admit that while Nitish will never be the one to snap ties with Lalu unless it becomes inevitable, he expressed dismay with RJD leaders like Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and others who’ve been allowed to target Nitish.
The irony is that it doesn’t look like Lalu is making a serious attempt to restrain his party leaders. A crafty politician that he is, Nitish has kept everyone guessing. Though he may participate in the anti-BJP rally that Lalu is likely to hold in August, Nitish has not committed anything.
Those who know Nitish believe that he may not be inclined to give the secular leadership position to Lalu, who is unilaterally taking the lead without holding any consultation with the JD(U) and the Congress.
But, dismissing all speculations about Nitish’s warmth for Modi can still be oversimplification. In May 2013 when Nitish took the trouble of personally dropping then Union Finance Minister, P Chidambaram, at the gate of Bihar Congress headquarters "Sadaquat Ashram" in his car, it triggered speculations about him getting closer to Congress.
But, Nitish had then trashed the gossip, saying he only played a good host. A month later, Nitish stormed out of the NDA.
That Nitish seems refrained from saying many things is understandable. But, his silence is no less loud than his actions.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)