Have JD(U)’s garrulous spokesmen not learnt from Shivanand’s fate?
Patna,(BiharTimes): The posters appearing against three Janata Dal (United) spokespersons Neeraj Kumar, Ajay Alok and Sanjay Singh as well as party general secretary, Shyam Rajak, have once again raised a question: whether chief minister Nitish Kumar is ‘misusing’ them.
The way Nitish threw out loud-mouthed and seasoned spokesman, Shivanand Tiwary, just ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha election is known to all. The veteran socialist loyally served JD(U) as its national spokesman for several years. But he fell from the grace after the October 28, 2013 Chintan shivar at Rajgir in which he indulged in some plainspeaking.
Though the posters appearing in Patna on Saturday morning said that the JD(U) spokesmen are issuing statements against RJD leaders in spite of Nitish asking them not to do so, JD(U) insiders said that they are in constant touch with the national president of the party amd are speaking at his behest.
Besides, how can spokesmen speak on their own (as the posters claimed) and not at the behest of the leader?
These spokesmen as well as Rajak were in forefront in their attack against the then chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. As Nitish has the habit of using his spokesmen against his own ‘dear friends’ what is happening now is nothing new.
“Be it BJP, Manjhi or ‘Bade Bhai’ Lalu Prasad all were Nitish’s best friends. It is he who picked them up and embraced them and not the other way round. If anything goes wrong he would go on silent mode and use these spokesmen to attack. One fine morning he may even sack the spokesmen too,” commented an independent observer.
Besides, the unceremonious exit of Tiwary one is reminded of the infamous public spat between Nitish’s minister Giriraj Singh of BJP and his own party MP, Monazir Hasan, on the day the chief minister cancelled dinner to the BJP bigwigs, including Narendra Modi. The deadlock continued for several weeks as Nitish later returned Rs five crore donated by the Gujarat government for the Kosi flood of 2008.
It then appeared that the NDA would collapse. But after a few weeks of stalemate top BJP leaders including Arun Jaitley, intervened and brought truce as the 2010 Assembly election was too close.
Four months later Monazir’s wife unsuccessfully contested on RJD ticket. Today he is not in JD(U).
The case of Ajay Alok needs to be mentioned. He was removed from the post of spokesman late last year, but was reinstated earlier this year.
So far Shyam Rajak is concerned he was recently caught in a sting operation mocking the lust for power of both Nitish and Lalu Prasad.
What is strange is that the posters which appeared in Patna on Saturday did not mention the name of the national spokesman of the party K C Tyagi, who till a few months back was considered as Sharad Yadav loyalist.
As the JD(U) spokesmen have become too garrulous, sometimes––as in the case of Rajak––they do not know what they are speaking. They are not taken seriously too.
Mark it, perhaps as an atonement Shivanand is now defending Lalu stoutly though he is not at all in RJD. He has not forgotten the humiliating manner in which Nitish had kicked him out while delivering a public speech at S K Memorial Hall In Jan 2014.
