Patna,(BiharTimes): When on February 6 the recently appointed advisor to the Bihar chief minister,, Prashant Kishor, addressed leaders and workers of Janata Dal (United) during an interactive session at CM’s residence it sparked off a debate as to in which capacity was he doing so. A section of media even went on to state that he played the role of ‘guru’.

Apparently there is nothing wrong in ‘teaching’ something to somebody. But then Prashant is neither a member of permanent executive (bureaucracy) nor of political executive (MP, MLA, minister etc)––though as the advisor he holds the post equal to that of the cabinet minister in Bihar.

He is neither a renowned academic or scholar but a consultant.

No doubt Prashant Kishor has global exposure. His team had worked to ensure victory of the BJP in Gujarat in 2012 and again NDA at the national level in 2014.

He crossed over to the Janata Dal (United) last year aftrer developing differences with some BJP bigwigs. His team spearheaded the election campaign for Janata Dal (United) in the last Assembly election. He marketed Brand Nitish yet it is other thing that the JD(U) won 71 seats, nine less than Lalu Prasad’s RJD––though both the parties contested 101 seats each.

After BJP it was Janata Dal (United), which spent lavishly during the campaign. The BJP––which had used the same Prashant in the past––ironically went on to accuse Nitish of misuing state machinery for campaign, especially in programmes like Badh Chala Bihar.

In contrast RJD was nowhere near BJP and JD(U) in mobilising money and other resources for election. Yet it won maxiumum number of seats.

While media showered fulsome praise on Prashant Kishor, hardly anyone examined as to what brought about such a great revival of Lalu Prasad, who even got relatively bad Press.
This had happened in spite of the conscious effort of Prashant Kishor to maintain distance from RJD. His team never highlighted the positive aspects of Lalu’s party.

For argument sake, even if one accepts that Prashant played a key role in ensuring 71 seats to the JD(U) dooes it mean that he should now teach the ministers, legislators, district presidents of the party etc––and that too in the absence of Nitish Kumar himself who was not well on February 6.

Prashant focused on strengthening the party at the grassroots level during his 30-minute lecture, when the fact is that most of them whom he was addressing had emerged from the lowest rung of politics.

However, independent political observers are of the view that Prashant, like any other person, has the right to share his experiences with the JD(U) leaders––which included Bihar JD(U) chief Bashishtha Narayan Singh and the members of the newly constituted state body––but then he had to remain ready to learn something too as many of those whom he ‘taught’ have more to teach. After all many of them have won election which Prashant has never.