The new Modi Bhakt

Nitish Kumar's assertion that no one has the capacity to take on Narendra Modi in 2019 is amusing. That may give an idea why he has deserted Mahagathbandhan. What Nitish says may be true, given the disarray in which opposition parties appear today. But who knows what political consequences Hindutva, lynchings, Muslim and Dalit targeting, farmer unrest, economic disruptions by demonetisation and the GST, and lack of jobs may have in 2019? Nitish Kumar's own future may be uncertain. He is a pragmatic politician who has cleverly provided an anti-corruption cover to his pursuit of power. His claims to good, corruption-free governance collapsed the day he joined hands with Lalu Prasad in 2014. For years he had built his political career fighting what he himself called Lalu's “jungle raj” in Bihar. Now, by changing sides in the name of corruption, he has sacrificed secularism.

Being an opportunist is no disqualification in politics. But Nitish has pushed himself further down from the high moral pedestal he once occupied. From being a possible challenger to Narendra Modi in 2019, someone BJP opponents saw till the other day as a likely Prime Minister of this vast democracy, Nitish Kumar has offered himself on a platter to the Modi-Amit Shah duo for “use and throw”, as and when necessary. He feels compelled to speak like a Modi Bhakt. The BJP may need him until 2019, thereafter Nitish’s usefulness would stand reduced. With a small social and political base in Bihar, Nitish Kumar has pretty little to build on. His retention of the CM's gaddi in 2020 would depend on whether the BJP would need him then. 

His political allies have their own game plans. The larger commitment of Modi and Amit Shah is to BJP expansion, whatever it takes, and not to coalition dharma or Nitish’s political career. Modi won't forgive Nitish for opposing his being declared a PM candidate in 2013. So far Nitish may have outsmarted fellow travellers in politicking but this time he is faced with a ruthless power-grabbing machine that he cannot match or manage. He is, and will be, at the BJP’s mercy.