01/02/2014

 

Does Hitlerian army’s fate await Nitish’s war-machine in political battleground of Bihar?


Soroor Ahmed


The rebel Janata Dal (United) MP, Purnamasi Ram, recently called Bihar chief minister as Hitler. He was not the first and may not be the last to call Nitish Kumar so.

Whether Nitish is actually Hitler or not is for his friends and rivals to confirm, but one thing appears clear: he is at least fighting the political battle like the German dictator––that is on too many fronts simultaneously.

It was nobody else who opened so many fronts, but Hitler himself. Similarly, in Bihar’s political battleground the chief minister has opened so many fronts that it seems that like the German army the Janata Dal (United) workers have got over-stretched. If such a big well equipped army once in control of area from the outskirts of Moscow in the east to Paris in the west can collapse because of fighting on all sides at the same time, will the Janata Dal (United) war-machine meet the same fate?

In politics it is not very easy to predict. But the way Nitish is making enemies within and outside the day is not too far when his party may give in and collapse under its own pressure.

Till a couple of years back––like in the early days of World War-II––Nitish was in complete command. Some observers even started writing the political obituary of Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan and Congress was nowhere in the scene.

Suddenly Nitish turned his gun within and started targeting Narendra Modi even before he was actually made the prime ministerial candidate of the BJP. Many analysts did not take him too seriously then. They thought that there is some secret understanding between the BJP and him to accuse each other so that the two manage to get Hindu as well as Muslim votes respectively.

But that was not to be. In 2012 the Janata Dal (United) went to the extent of supporting the Congress candidate for Presidential election, Pranab Mukherjee.

Even that was ignored though he kept teasing the saffron brigade. He even tried to fish in the troubled waters of the BJP and openly sided with Lal Krishna Advani and flagged off his Jan Chetna Yatra from the birthplace of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan.

Months later his friendship with the Congress reached such a stage that he once even went to the extent of dropping Union finance minister P Chidambaram to the state headquarters of Congress in Sadaquat Ashram. The alliance partner was appalled by this development, but the BJP never expected that very soon all its 11 ministers would be thrown out of the cabinet. What went wrong nobody even in JD(U) could ever understand. If it really was the Gujarat riots than at its height Nitish never condemned Narendra Modi. As the railway minister then he, in 2003, publicly praised Modi in Bhuj. In May 2009, during an election rally in Punjab he waved hand-in-hand with his Gujarat counterpart.

After that Nitish started playing the card of Bihari sub-nationalism. He became obsessed with the idea of Bihar Diwas, special category status and Bihari pride.

When the Centre constituted Raghuram Rajan Committee and it submitted its report Nitish was initially happy. Days later he realized that he had achieved nothing. Even then he did not accuse the Congress leadership.

In between Lalu Prasad got convicted on Sep 30. The Congress and Janata Dal (United), which were both coming closer to each other, interpreted this development in different ways.

But Lalu’s conviction compelled the Congress to redraw its strategy. The party leaders thought that it has generated a lot of sympathy for the RJD chief. So gradually the party started maintaining equi-distance with both RJD and JD (U).

Nitish was upset and turned his heat on Congress, while fully knowing that four of its MLAs are supporting his government. He even forgot that the Congress put up a candidate belonging to Rajput caste in Maharajganj by-election of June 2013 to ensure the defeat of Rajput RJD candidate, Prabhunath Singh. But the latter won.

Nitish started firing salvos on the Congress even as Narendra Modi trained his big gun on him in the Hunkar Rally.

By the end of 2013 the likelihood of any Congress-JD(U) pre-poll alliance was almost over.

Seeing the revival of the RJD the Bihar chief minister now started targeting Lalu––an exercise which he had virtually forgotten.

Like the Hitler, who got trapped in the strategy laid down by Allies, Nitish fell into the ploy woven by the BJP. Its leaders would daily issue statements talking about the JD(U)-Congress bonhomie.

Provoked by this Nitish and his men increased their offensive against Congress to show to the world that JD(U) is not actually close to the Congress. By January he started abusing even Rahul Gandhi and called Congress a ‘dangai’ party and held it responsible for the 1984 and 1989 riots.

While the Congress central leadership would not criticize him and left the task to the state leaders Nitish went to the extent of using the function of AMU at Kishanganj to attack the Congress.

Even though Sonia Gandhi did not directly attack the Bihar government––she only made reference of huge amount given to Bihar for its development in the last 10 years––Nitish left no opportunity go to lambast the Congress.

Now he is suddenly talking of reviving the erstwhile Janata Dal by bringing together Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Biju Janata Dal and Samajwadi Party––but obviously not RJD and even perhaps LJP.

As if that was not enough he suddenly chose to settle scores with some top party leaders within. Taking action against Shivanand Tiwary may––one way or the other––be justified. But what prompted him to drop N K Singh and Sabir Ali? Even his own party leaders are unable to explain.

Now while making speech he spends the entire time in attacking the BJP, Congress, RJD, detractors within JD(U) but hardly gets any time to highlight his own achievements. He has not only made the BJP enemy after 17 long years, but lost goodwill of many in the Congress, who personally liked him. Similarly, in JD(U) he lost some very dedicated party leaders and alarmed many others––even the party chief Sharad Yadav. Analysts are unanimous that all these steps are self-defeating and politically suicidal.

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