The events happening in Bihar reminds me of an old story told by my grandfather. Three thieves were brought into the court of a king, the first of these thieves was a respectable member of the court, the king told him, “ I never expected this from you” and let him go.
The next one was a respectable businessman, the king ordered him to stand barefoot and bare head in the court till evening, the last one was a regular thief and the king ordered soldiers to give him 50 lashes and make him roam in the city with face painted black. The minister objected to this discrimination! The king asked the minister to watch the progress . The first thief committed suicide, second did not move out of his house for months and the third one after getting lashes and walking on the road with painted face shouted to his wife, “ make some good food I am very tired of the hardwork”. My grandfather would have never expected that Indian politicians would join the team of third types thieves.
Chameleons are embarrassed but not these politicians. Navjot Sidhu, must be feeling dwarfed looking at the Nitish suashan babu who is being called man of many U turns by a leading news channel. The man has successfully completed 30 years of changing alliances. In 1994 Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes left Janta Dal to form Samta party. He has defied all political analysts who claimed to have understood Nitish’s kootneeti ( diplomacy). One of the comments made in previous U turn to go with his arch rival he blamed for jungle raj was,
“There is every indication to suggest that Nitish’s return to the Mahagathbandhan this time will be long-term. And in the process, opposition parties across the country will have a strong and articulate operator to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.”
Nalin Verma. thewire.in 9th august 2022.
Excited by this change H.D. Deve Gowda said,”the developments in Bihar signal the possibility of a good alternative for the nation.”
‘Snollygoster’ means a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician, that is what Shashi Tharoor has shared on his Instagram account without taking any name. As it is not enough The famous analyst Prashant Kishore rates him as a spent force saying.
“ Once a PM candidate Nitish may not win 10 seats on his personal charisma. He has lost charm, respect and following”.
No survey is required to understand that Bihar people are not happy with a chief minister whom they have not voted to rule the state.
Nitish U turn has exposed many others.
It is not only Nitish Kumar but other parties and their leaders also who are getting exposed on two counts.
● Despite having won more seats, why are these parties scared to rule the state?
● Why are they forced to forget and forgive the insult they have undergone in the past.
Why BJP is keen to allow him remain chief minister despite closing doors for him permanently.
BJP has nothing to lose except its image of eating its own words.To this author it is a big loss but the author is not a politician.
However If one pursues Chanakya Niti then it is a natural strategic move to split rival forces.
It achieves major goals.
● Breaking the I.N.D.I. alliance for good, as mentioned above Nitish was the face which reflected statesmanship, experience and the credibility to beat BJP in mind games. Unlike Uddhav thakre and sharad pawar, he managed to keep his party united and disrupted power sharing as a setback to BJP. As mentioned above he brought most of the opposition parties on a single platform.
● It pleased Lalu Yadav as Nitish being involved in the national politics, stage was well set for his son to be the chief minister of Bihar who has been trained by Nitish Kumar. Rest of the parties could not boast such credentials as most of them are fighting to defend themselves against corruption charges.
● One of the previous articles,Elections in five states and time to analyze the impact and efficacy of the present system, It was noted that the political parties do not have a wide base of support similar to developed countries, but rather, tend to appeal to a wide variety of social groups (Özbudun 1987). As a result, these parties do not build grassroots-level cadres and fall for appeasing these groups,
As a result when these parties try to build a national alliance they are bound to fail as the groups which these parties have lured are mostly in conflict. For example Mamta benarjee can not tolerate anything however good if it hurts her Muslim vote bank. Over and above these leaders have their irrational ambitions. In the present case, by promoting Kharge as the future prime minister these over ambitious leaders killed the golden goose. The proposal hurts Nitish Kumar Most as he is getting nothing for doing everything.
● BJP which is trying to establish sabka sath sabka vikas knows it well that all said and done Indian public still not given up allegiance to castes, regions and languages and in 2015 it has learnt in Bihar that united opposition may take away some important seats in election. Therefore it took advantage of the Kharge episode.
● With successful Pran pratishtha at Ram janm bhumi without any major violence the Ram lahar has taken over. Even the Islamic countries have accepted this event except for a few articles expressing sadness on building a temple on a disputed site. These articles have failed to generate any meaningful resistance as the highest court’s approval is with the Ram janm bhumi nyas. With breaking the backbone of the alliance the BJP may look at breaking Rajiv Gandhi’s record win in 1984 general election.
● With two deputies in the saddle, BJP will run the show and RJD may have a tough time in defending its territory. The cases against the yadav family will have more teeth now. By taming Nitish, BJP may pull the carpet below the RJD feet.
● Bihar matters: despite sharing power in Bihar for long not much inroads have been made in the caste based vote banks of Lalu Yadav and others. A small shift in the vote bank cost BJP heavily in Bihar. It had its first major defeat after the phenomenal success of the 2014 general election. Bihar matters for electing Rajya Sabha MP as well. The debacle in 2015 made it meek to keep Nitish CM despite having more seats in the assembly.
Challenges ahead.
The above factors will help BJP manage the national election in 2024 well, but it has to show performance to survive in the 2025 state election.
The U turn by Nitish and the meek surrender of BJP despite declaring no alliance policy with JD (U) has hurt its public image.
Public is not happy with Nitish managing Bihar despite being rejected. Many leaders of both BJP and JD (U) are not able to digest this alliance. The strewed politician Lalu will try his best to instigate defection as only 8 mlas are needed to defeat this new alliance.
Prime minister understand this and has tweeted,
“I congratulate @NitishKumar ji as Chief Minister and Samrat Chaudhary ji and Vijay Sinha ji on taking oath as Deputy Chief Ministers. I am confident that this team will serve my family members of the state with full dedication”
Until these ‘family members’ I.e public of Bihar, are served in true sense. People of Bihar are fed up with sending their children to Delhi and Mumbai to fulfill their aspirations, chances are Bihar public may choose a path similar to that chosen by people of south in eradicating congress rule which played with public sentiments to manage its national policy.
Most of the BIMARU states are out of this tag except Bihar. The absence of ease of doing business has fed the civil services for a long time. The brilliant people of Bihar deserve a better deal.
The national ambition of Nitish Kumar can be managed by offering him governor position and providing a free hand to leadership in Bihar which can open a new road to sabka sath sabka vikas. His birthday on the first of March may be just right to provide him a respectable exit.
Chirag Paswan can play a bigger role in achieving this. This goes well with the policy of sabka sath sabka vikas.
People of Bihar have allegiance to UP and West Bengal, a positive change in political and social climate in Bihar may provide a long awaited turn around of luck in West Bengal as well.
Water Resources Department.
This is the most inefficient and corrupt department and the most sought after one in Bihar. On the other hand, floods and droughts are destroying the ecosystem. As per world bank report,
“In Bihar, too, where many rivers flow down from the mountains of Nepal carrying large sediment loads, more than 70 percent of the land is flood prone. What’s more, 28 out of Bihar’s 38 districts are affected by either floods or droughts, and sometimes by both every year”.
Prashant Kishor has raised this issue in his ‘jan Suraj yatra’ and accused ministers for “pani se kamai”. He is a good strategist and roping him in will allow focused growth and it will also keep him and his analytical skills, away from helping anti BJP governments as well.
This is one area where the prime minister can implement his ‘na khaunga na khane dunga’ pledge to turn around the fate of Bihar farmers. As the embankment of the canals are good resources for developing roads. A new era of development and prosperity can take place. If done correctly along with shifting Nitish to national politics as a retirement benefit. Bihar will contribute lavishly in mission 2047.
Conclusion
BJP has bitten the bullet by making alliance with Nitish kumar and has taken a beating in public image. There are risks but there are more opportunities to prove that this was done for the betterment of Bihar. This requires focused attention. From Shatrughn Sinha to Yashvant Sinha, many failures have impacted the rise of Bihar. It is high time that the rhetoric should translate into performance.Failing people's aspirations will not go well with the future of democracy.
The turnaround of Bihar will bring back the golden era when Magadh ruled the world. After all Bihar gave the world Chankya and its famous arthashastra.
By Rakesh Kumar
(The content of this article reflects the views of writers and contributors, not necessarily those of the publisher and editor. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only)
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