Patna,(BiharTimes): By not inviting the BJP ministers and leaders in an agriculture department function where the chief minister Nitish Kumar was the main speaker the Bihar government has got itself embroiled into the Janata Dal (United)-BJP war of attrition.

Perhaps the JD(U) leader failed to distinguish between the government and politics. The action has raised a serious question: whether the government machinery should be dragged into politics between two alliance partners of the ruling NDA?

Though the BJP strongly protested this action of Janata Dal (United) as it is an equal partner in the state government, it seems that the leadership of the latter has become too overbearing and arrogant. It has started treating BJP as a liability rather than an asset.

The BJP leaders are seething with anger as the agriculture department is headed by JD(U) minister, Narendra Singh. Not to speak of animal husbandry minister Giriraj Singh and cooperative minister, Ramadhar Singh (both of BJP) the agriculture department did not even invite the deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, who was till recently considered very close to Nitish Kumar.

If Nitish really did not want to share dais with the BJP leaders or ministers he should not have done so at the Foundation Day function of Comfed a couple of days after his April 14 New Delhi speech. He was flanked by Sushil Modi and Giriraj Singh then. In fact Comfed comes under animal husbandry department, which is under Giriraj Singh.

The BJP leaders are now openly stating that they were never humiliated and insulted in such a way during 15 years of what they call Jungle Raj of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi though as an opposition party it was very critical of them. The battle was never made personal though it was Modi who moved court in the fodder scam case.

Political observers are unanimous that there is no denying the fact that Nitish had reached such a height because of generosity and large-heartedness shown by BJP. In 1995 Assembly election Nitish’s outfit, Samata Party, was completely decimated when it won only seven out of 324 Assembly seats in the then Bihar(which included Jharkhand then).

It was only when Nitish joined hands with BJP in 1996 that his graph started moving upward. Though BJP won 12 seats the Samata only six in the Lok Sabha election held in 1996. In 2010 Assembly election BJP won 91 while JD (U) 115 seats. The success rate of BJP was better than JD(U) as it contested in only 102 seats while the latter in 141. The BJP never staked claim for the post of chief minister yet it is the same Nitish who is trying to break all relationship with the saffron party.

In spite of much narrower social base the BJP gave importance to Nitish as it found in him a good backward leader to counter Lalu. The party did succeed in its objective and finally got rid of Lalu-Rabri raj. But the saffron party leaders never realized that the man whom they projected and promoted so forcefully would one day betray them and treat them worst then even the bitterest political opponents.

Senior BJP leader Harendra Pratap , who is also an MLC, said the Janata Dal (United) was treating the BJP like a “street dog”. A senior RSS functionary, he said the BJP gave encouragement to the Samata Party and its subsequent incarnation, JD-U, but was not getting its due. The Janata Dal (United) leaders are treating the BJP workers as “daya ke patra”, he said and claimed the JD (U) rose to power only due to the cooperation of the BJP and recalled in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections to the Rajya Sabha, BJP MLAs gave their votes to JD-U candidates. He also recalled that even when the BJP had more MLAs than the Samata Party in 2000, it had allowed Nitish to become CM.

But now the time has come to get deprived of power and only get kicks from the same old friend.