Nitish has long been accused of doublespeak, of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. But has he elements of a statesman that sometimes make him shun partisan politics and take a stand on merit on issues of public importance?
Is Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar a gaddar (traitor), as Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee described him, without taking his name, while addressing a rally in Patna on Wednesday, for backing PM Narendra Modi’s demonetization move. Is he, seen by some as a modern Chanakya (the historical figure who is said to have strategized founding of the Mauryan dynasty), merely trying to keep all his political options open by backing ‘notebandi’ or has he elements of a statesman that sometimes make him shun partisan politics and take a stand on merit on issues of public importance, exposing him to the risk of being misunderstood in these times of petty politics?
Nitish has long been accused of doublespeak, of running with the hare and hunting with the hound. He was in alliance with BJP for 17 years, and successfully ran a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state for 13 years despite contradictory voices within his party (JD-U) from time to time. Yet, when Narendra Modi was chosen as the saffron party’s prime ministerial face, he parted ways with BJP, dropping its nominees from the state council of ministers.
One will recall that Nitish had earlier made no secret of his antipathy for NaMo, during whose rein as Gujarat CM the 2002 riots took place. In June 2010, when a Gujarat government ad in Bihar newspapers tried to project NaMo during the BJP national executive’s meet in Patna, an enraged Nitish
cancelled the dinner planned by him for the assembled BJP brass. Thanks to BJP, the NDA government in Bihar survived this severe jolt, and the alliance was voted back to power in the 2010 assembly elections. The alliance lasted till mid-2013, when Nitish dropped all BJP ministers from the government after NaMo’s ‘final ascent’ in his party. Nitish thus reaped rich political dividends from his alliance with the BJP.
However, after the JD(U)’s virtual rout in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls at the hands of NaMo-led NDA, Nitish lost no time in cobbling together an alliance with arch foe Lalu Prasad of the RJD and political guru Ram Manohar Lohia’s whipping boy, the Congress. His ‘master stroke’ resulted in a landslide victory for the JD(U)-RJD-Congress’s grand alliance in the 2015 Bihar assembly elections. Thus, he has got the best of both the worlds. Now, his support to the NaMo government’s demonetization of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, it is said, is aimed at keeping alliance partners RJD and Congress on tenterhooks and the BJP confused. If the demonetization succeeds, he could claim credit for supporting it. If it backfires, the JD(U) could blame the bad implementation, aver his critics.
Apparently, Nitish is no novice player on the political chessboard. But one can get a peek in the working of his mind from the fact that he is a strong votary of the rule of law. He banished ‘jungle raj’ in Bihar by sending thousands of criminals behind bars with speedy trial to vastly improve the law and order. In a society where half the population – the women - is still seen as ‘pair ki juti (footwear)’ and ‘tadan ki adhikari (deserving to be bashed up)’, he has, one after the other, taken steps for their empowerment, like giving impetus to girls’ education and implementing 35% quota in government jobs. He, for one, keeps a distance from people of questionable record. His government is also receptive to public criticism, the remedial action taken to get the bails of Mohd Shahabuddin, Raj Ballabh Yadav and Rocky Yadav cancelled being cases in point.
It is also to his credit that he has backed the proposal for 33 per cent reservation for women in legislative bodies from the very beginning. While netas like Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav and their supporters have blocked legislation for the purpose in parliament, demanding sub-quota for the OBC women, Nitish has been steadfast in his support.
Nitish has drawn much flak for his new-found zeal for enforcing total prohibition in Bihar. After allowing the state to get wet during his earlier terms, he has now gone to the extent of enacting a stringent law that could be seen as a dictatorial streak in his nature. One may also fault him for trying to decide what people will eat or drink, but the anti-liquor social movement that he seeks to spawn has the potential to improve much the plight of poor liquor addicts.
More than larger issues, it is often a leader’s approach to smaller things that gives an insight into his mindset. An anecdotal experience about Nitish is revealing. The widow of a virtually unknown and unsung freedom fighter who had hoisted flag on Bihar secretariat on August 11, 1942, passed away in January, 2010. Though her’s was a completely apolitical family and the freedom fighter himself had passed away in 1984, CM Nitish learned about her by chance and visited her residence not once but twice to pay homage.
BJP veteran and former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had the guts to describe the then PM, Indira Gandhi, as Durga after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Demonetization and Nitish’s support for it may not quite fall in that category, unless the supposed war against the deep-rooted cancer of corruption and black money is decisively fought and won. As Nitish’s
political innings continues to unfold, with some perseverance and a bit of luck, he could well come to be known as a statesman that India has had.
(Navendu Sharma is a journalist based in Patna. He was formerly with the Times of India and Hindustan Times).
