No drought of ideas in Nitish’s armour as he delivers NCM lecture

Patna,(BiharTimes): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s two day trip to New Delhi, during which he met the prime minister, Union finance minister and Union agriculture minister and had lunch with European Union envoys are all seen as link in the same chain. But the most important one was his speech at the Sixth Annual Lecture of the National Commission for Minorities at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library auditorium on Friday evening.

The big question that is being asked is as to why the same National Commission for Minorities (NCM), which after the brutal killing of four Muslims in Forbesganj on June 3, 2011, expressed its displeasure over the state government’s handling of the situation, has invited Nitish Kumar to address its Sixth Annual Lecture.

About three weeks after the brutal killing the NCM Chairman, Wajahat Habibullah, along with a woman member, visited the Bhajanpura village of Forbesganj sub-division in Araria district and later addressed the media in Patna.

The BJP MLC, Ashok Agrawal, considered close to the then deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, was blamed for the the chain of events, which led to the police firing. But then Nitish and Sushil Modi were not bitter political adversaries.

Two years down the line, that is after the split in the NDA, Nitish Kumar became the first chief minister of the country to address the Lecture. What is so important about him when there is so many Congress chief ministers who could have addressed it? This is a million dollar question doing the rounds.

The Commission, which was formed in 1978 by the then Morarji Desai government started organizing annual lecture from 2008.

The first to deliver was Justice A M Ahmadi, former Chief Justice of India.

In 2009 Justice Rajender Sachar delivered the lecture on “Minorities in Constitution of India”.
He was followed by former President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, on the topic “Evolution of a Prosperous, Peaceful, Inclusive and Happy Society.”

The fourth lecture was delivered by the Dalai Lama in the year 2011 and in 2012 Dr Shashi Tharoor delivered the fifth one on the topic “Who is an Indian? A Nation of Minorities”.

Nitish spoke on “The Idea of India”. He took an opportunity to criticize the Sangh Parivar and without taking the name of his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi, came down heavily on him. He called the Muzaffarnagar riots a blot on the country.

Analysts are of the view that the whole exercise was a part of the great game-plan of the Congress.
A few days back Nitish had hinted that all decision about alliance may come up not before October. This latest trip to New Delhi is seen in this background.

The sudden decision of the state government to declare 33 out of 38 districts drought-hit and the very next day his departure for New Delhi surprised many. There he met P Chidambaram and Sharad Pawar to be followed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the next day. He told the media that the state had sought Rs 12,000 crore from the Centre as drought relief.

Though Nitish was scheduled to deliver NCM lecture it could be highlighted by a section of media just a couple of days before.

May be coincidentally, Nitish and Lalu flew by the same plane to New Delhi on Thursday. Reports even suggested that they held talks. But it could not be known as to what they had talked.