The curious case of Nitish’s RSS love

Ajay Kumar

Desperation and ambition make strange bedfellows. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is desperately fighting for spotlight space as a secular prime ministerial alternative to the UPA, is now balancing his minority support bank with praise for the RSS. This has made many Nitish watchers in Patna sit up. “It is surprising, considering Nitish’s aversion to Narendra Modi,” says a BJP source.

Last week, the Janata Dal (United) leader contradicted his own party’s national spokesman, Shivanand Tiwari, by coming out strongly in support of the RSS and BJP. He described as ‘irresponsible’ Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde’s remarks linking the Sangh Parivar to Hindu terrorism. He even challenged Shinde to initiate action if he has any information or documents supporting his charges. “His statement is irresponsible and reflects his immaturity,” said Nitish, adding that Shinde should realise that he is Home Minister of the country and not merely a Congress leader. “As a Congress leader one can make any statement suitable to party,” Nitish said, adding that such remarks send a wrong message in the society and vitiate the environment.

This is the first time in the recent past that Nitish had come out so strongly in support of the Sangh Parivar. Political observers feel that the new line adopted by Nitish—who has been watchful in publicly backing RSS—is because Lalu Prasad Yadav is making a dent in the lower caste minority votebank. They feel that Nitish’s new-found love for the Sangh is due to the influence of the deputy chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who is seen as the JD(U)’s man in the BJP. Nitish was only parroting what Sushil Modi had said a day earlier about Shinde.

In Bihar, the fight is not between Nitish and the Congress, but between him and Narendra Modi. In this fight, Sushil Modi has played a pivotal role by supporting his chief minister. Sushil Modi has tightened his grip on the party by getting Mangal Pandey, his own man, installed as the state party chief amidst tough opposition from C P Thakur and Narendra Modi loyalists. Ironically, the JD(U) owes more to Sushil Modi than the reverse. It is he who let JD(U) grow in Bihar for what he believes is a larger cause—fighting Lalu. During the mid-1990s Nitish was virtually in the political wilderness with his outfit, Samata Party, having only seven MLAs in the Assembly. Sushil Modi was then the powerful leader of opposition in the state. But not only did the BJP shy away from contesting more seats than the JD(U) in the Assembly elections held twice in 2005 and again in 2010, Sushil Modi also stood back allowing Nitish’s party get a greater parliament seat share than the BJP in the General Elections. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, the JD(U) performed worse than the BJP and Nitish lost his own Barh Lok Sabha seat, though he won from Nalanda. At the same time, Sushil Modi won the Bhagalpur Lok Sabha seat in spite of the anti-NDA wave and Bhagalpur being a new constituency for him. Yet in 2005 he did not stake claim for the NDA leadership in Bihar and stood aside for Nitish. Sushil Modi was then the national vice president of the BJP too. But his hopes of being kingmaker were diluted, with a wily Nitish consolidating his base and relegating the BJP to second position.

Anna Hazare’s Bihar debut is also perceived in Patna’s political circles as Nitish’s attack by proxy on Narendra Modi. Nitish very tactically used Hazare; initially he was not interested in allowing Gandhi Maidan for Anna’s rally. Later Gen. V K Singh met him and Hazare called Nitish. Then some sort of understanding transpired between them, and Anna spoke taking care of Nitish and went ahead to attack Narendra Modi. The name of the rally was Jantantra rally instead of Bhrastachar Virodi rally.

It is another matter that the civil society activist failed to draw any significant attention in the city. Similarly, Nitish is also worried about not figuring in the list of any of the numerous opinion polls that have been conducted in the last few weeks.

Published in The Sunday Standard