Nitish Kumar’s power play in Bihar, while dealing a crippling blow to the entire mainstream opposition in India, sends out the unmistakable message that the BJP has started a no-holds-barred campaign for the 2019 elections.
NITISH KUMAR’S CHOICE OF WORDS TO describe his return as Chief Minister of Bihar at two different junctures in the past 20 months is a study in contrast. In November 2015, immediately after the Mahagathbandhan—the grand alliance consisting of the Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress and the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United)—swept to power defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Chief Minister sought to place the electoral triumph in a larger sociopolitical context with ideological overtones. He stated that the most important message of the victory was the resounding popular acceptance of one development paradigm and the emphatic rejection of another; the Bihar electorate apparently had voted for development with social justice and democracy while categorically repudiating the notion of development that promotes crony capitalism and seeks to cover up this anti-people mission by perpetuating communal divisions in society.
Approximately a year and a half later, when Nitish Kumar broke up the Mahagathbandhan and revived his erstwhile alliance with the NDA and once again took oath of office as Chief Minister, political and ideological formulations were conspicuous by their absence. The single most important thrust of the pronouncements of the four-times-sworn-in Chief Minister was individualistic. “My conscience did not allow me to continue in the Mahagathbandhan,” he said, adding that he would not compromise when it came to corruption in governance and the development of Bihar. The reference to corruption was, of course, in relation to the cases and investigations that came up recently against the first family of the RJD, including party president Lalu Prasad and son Tejashwi Yadav, Deputy Chief Minister in the Mahagathbandhan government.
This story is from the August 18, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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This story is from the August 18, 2017 edition of FRONTLINE.
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