European Union hosts lunch for Nitish in New Delhi

Patna,(BiharTimes): Friday was a hectic day for Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in New Delhi. He called on the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek help for the drought-hit state. In the evening he delivered Sixth Annual Lecture of the National Commission for Minorities on the topic “The Idea of India”.

But the most important engagement of the day appears to be his lunch with the representatives of the European Union in the national capital.

Nitish was accompanied by party MP N K Singh, state minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bihar Cultural Advisor and former Indian ambassador to Bhutan Pawan Kumar Varma.

Incidentally, the 27-member European Union hosted the lunch for the Bihar chief minister eight months after it had reached out to his Gujarat counterpart and friend-turn-rival, Narendra Modi. German Ambassador Michael Steiner had played host in January last.

Reports from New Delhi said that ambassadors of a number of EU countries were present on the occasion to meet the Bihar chief minister.

Though the EU’s lunch with Narendra Modi was kept a secret, this time it was a release by Bihar government’s Information Division that disclosed the news.

The role played by former bureaucrat and diplomat that is N K Singh and Pawan Varma respectively in arranging the meeting can not be ruled out.
Observers feel that EU has started realizing that Nitish Kumar may emerge as an important player after the 2014 Lok Sabha election.