Patna,(BiharTimes): Suddenly there is a competition between the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United) over Bharat Ratna award.

 While JD(U) general secretary, Shivanand Tiwari, questioned the decision to honour Sachin Tendulkar stating that hockey legend Dhyan Chand deserved it more, the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, came up with the idea of giving this award to the socialist ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia and former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur. Then he was suddenly reminded of the name of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But that only after the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that the former Prime Minister be awarded with Bharat Ratna.

 It is true a couple of UPA ministers have supported the demand yet the stand taken by Nitish Kumar surpised many political observers. It is true that Farooq Abdullah’s son Omar, like Nitish, was in the Vajpayee cabinet and National Conference was a part of NDA then yet the situation is totally different in the case of JD(U).

 Unlike Farooq, the Bihar chief minister is locked in a grim battle with the BJP. No doubt till recently he has been supportihg the BJP patriarch, Lal Krishna Advani, and targeting only its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi. But ever since October 27 blasts in Patna he has been criticizing the BJP as such too.

 So why did he backed the name of Vajpayee for Bharat Ratna? The reason is simple. Nitish wants to justify his past. He would never say that his association with the BJP was wrong during those heydays of the NDA rule.

 He has repeatedly said that his party JD(U) had joined the NDA and the Vajpayee cabinet only after the saffron party gave up its own core agenda and agreed on common minimum programme. Today Nitish wants to say that the BJP has moved away from that policy so he is opposing it.

 But by calling for Bharat Ratna to Vajpayee the Bihar chief minister made a big mistake. He did so after he sought similar honour for Karpoori Thakur and Lohia and supported thename of Vajpayee only after the BJP demanded so.

 What these Janata Dal (United) leaders of Bihar fail to explain is as to how many people will get Bharat Ratna all out of sudden. The award to Sachin and scientist, C N R Rao, this year is understandable, but certainly not to so many personalities––all from politics.

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