Tantrums of Patna

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has followed his conscience and has put in his papers rather than put up with Lalu Prasad’s cocky assertion that his son, the “indicted” Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, would not be asked to step down. Nitish Kumar has obviously allowed himself to see the ‘corruption’ issue as per the narrative being scripted by the BJP. The brewing Bihar crisis has boiled over. A very stable government stands destabilised. The ruling party at the Centre can, in turn, allow itself a smile of satisfaction that its use of the CBI/ED has paid such disproportionate dividends. After all, the Lalu-Nitish alliance’s victory in the November 2015 Bihar Assembly elections was the most definitive rebuff to the Modi leadership; it was that victory that had restored Nitish Kumar’s status as the potentially most formidable challenger to Narendra Modi in 2019. All these calculations and ambitions now stand comprehensively revised.

Though praise would be lavished on Nitish Kumar for ‘sacrificing’ his chair in the interest of probity, it can legitimately be asked whether he was not aware of all the allegations against the Yadav clan when the JD(U)-RJD alliance was worked out. It need be recalled that it was an “indicted” Lalu Prasad who led the spirited campaign in November 2015; yet the voters preferred the RJD as the largest party. Now, perhaps, Nitish Kumar felt that a CBI “indictment” had materially changed the situation. His desire that his deputy should withdraw from the Cabinet was not respected; and, his conscience kicked in.

Having taken a principled position, it remains to be seen how Nitish Kumar will work around another principle: integrity of the 2015 Bihar vote. The mandate that was sought and granted in 2015 was against Narendra Modi, BJP and its ‘communal’ politics and in favour of a certain kind of social compact. Any kind of working arrangement between Nitish Kumar and the BJP would be most unprincipled, to say the least. Nonetheless, ‘corruption’ is now deemed to be an over-riding mantra that can be chanted to consecrate any opportunistic manoeuvres. In the short term, both Bihar and Nitish Kumar would be the losers.