Modi’s Demonetization is a Hit with his Bitter Critic- Nitish Kumar
- In Politics
- 08:18 PM, Nov 23, 2016
- Nilesh Singh
Ever since the big bang announcement of demonetization by the government on the 8th of November 2016, most of the opposition parties are in a meltdown mode barring a couple. One of those standing in support of the government is the Chief Minister of Bihar - Mr. Nitish Kumar. He has endorsed the war waged by Modi against the Black money more than once. This is not the only action that has found support from Nitish, there have been other actions by the central government -like the handling of URI attack, recent surgical strike on terrorists and the passing of GST bill, to name a few which have invoked Nitish’s total support. Presence of the JDU chief at the celebration of the 100th birth anniversary of Deendayal Upadhyay (a lifelong RSS pracharak) has also not gone unnoticed by some section of the media given his stand on RSS in the past.
So what exactly is going on?
Especially with his views on the demonetization policy, where all the political leaders of the much hyped ‘Mahagathbandhan’ are against the government’s action, only Nitish has been unequivocal in his support to the government. One major reason for this could be that he wants to be seen among the people who are against the corrupt establishment and are for the poor (he has studied the nerve of the general population). He is largely seen as a person with impeccable record of being corruption free and seen as a development man or ‘vikas purush’ by many; and given the staggering support that the Central government has garnered among the poor with their big step to rout the black money, Nitish would prefer to be one who is with his people rather being against them. Just in case the main stream media has not wrapped its head around it yet, most of the people in the rural areas are extremely happy and upbeat with this war on the black money.
The other reason for his support could be one which is less conspicuous and more nuanced!
We should not forget that JDU and BJP had been in alliance since 1999, which ended abruptly just before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 with the announcement of Mr. Modi as the PM’s candidate from BJP. They were also in the power in the state of Bihar for almost a decade and garnered a very positive response for their corruption free and development oriented governance which marked the end of, years of lawlessness and ‘jungle raj’. We all know that the BJP swept Bihar in the general elections of 2014 but during the state election of 2016, JDU joined hands with so called secular parties (RJD, SP, Left etc) to form a ‘Mahagathbandhan’ to fight NDA and came out triumphant with a landslide victory. This was considered by some as the precursor to the things to come in the general elections of 2019, but ever since the results, the ‘cursor’ has been swaying away.
Nitish, not only has a clean image in media and among the elites, he is also very popular among the people of Bihar for bringing visible changes in their lives and for the better. His recent call for a ban on the sale of alcohol in the state has found tremendous support from every section of the society, more so among the women folks and the poor. The only burden that he is carrying with him is the coalition with the RJD, headed by the tainted - Laloo Prasad Yadav. Nitish has been incurring a lot of wrath from many people for entering into this alliance knowing the despicable track record of RJD especially with their ‘goonda raj’ which has ruined Bihar and thrown back the state decades behind others. The recent release of criminal turned politician and bahubali , Shahabuddin has also not gone well with most of the people and the media. Shahbuddin and other RJD leaders have been very vocal in condemning and attacking Nitish for his policies which inhibits their free and unabashed run as has been the case in the past. RJD is notorious for running ‘goonda raj’ in Bihar for decades which is a far cry from the agenda of ‘su-shashan’ projected by JDU. The coalition has always been itchy and we are seeing more differences coming out in open.
So, what can we make out of it? Is the RJD + JDU alliance coming apart? Will there be a possible alliance of JDU and BJP again?
As is said in Indian politics, it is an art of possibilities and therefore nothing should be ruled out. A keen look at the numbers from the Bihar elections tells us that a possible BJP + JDU puts them just over the majority mark. Having said that I don’t see JDU ditching the RJD, unless the RJD goes overboard with their politics of arm twisting of the government and with their interference in the CM’s policies. We should also remember that the RJD is the single largest party in the coalition and has a huge support of the ‘yadav’ clan. Not to mention and that a clear majority of Muslims have voted for Nitish, and his alliance with BJP won’t go well with many of those. Nitish is in a catch-22 situation, but if I have to guess, I would lean towards him breaking out of the alliance, sooner or the later. If not, at least we can credit him for being a good opposition to the Central government for supporting issues which deserves the support!
Looking at the last angle to Nitish’s unexpected support to the Modi government - There has been rumor in the past, of Nitish’s chance or rather wish of becoming a PM. In that case the alliance with BJP makes even more sense as it will provide him a solid platform to paint himself on a larger canvas. But since this is still a rumor, it would be prudent to just wait and watch things unfold.
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