NO RESPITE FOR BIHAR

LALOO AND NITISH

Devil and the Deep Sea

Shashi Ranjan

With Assembly elections in Bihar less than two months away, former state chief minister and president of Rashtriya Janata Dal Laloo Prasad Yadav has extended a hand of friendship towards the state's upper caste voters. He has promised 10 per cent reservations for the poor among upper castes if his party along with Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) is voted to power. It is hard to take Laloo at face value because he has been the chief architect of Backward versus Forward politics in Bihar. In the entire 15-year period that his party ruled Bihar, he did little that could now make the upper caste bite his latest bait.

But then, the trajectory fellow politician Mayawati's career has taken, shows that anything is possible in politics. Mayawati started her career with a rabidly anti-upper caste slogan "Tilak, taraju aur talwar; inko maro jootey char," but soon moved to "Haathi nahi Ganesh hai; Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh hai" to woo the upper caste. Mayawati quickly shifted her party's focus from Bahujan Samaj to Sarvajan Samaj, not for the love of upper caste, but after realising that she could not rule a large state like Uttar Pradesh with the support of Dalits only.

Similar realisation seems to have dawned on Laloo Yadav. His consolidation of Backwards against Forwards has become a thing of the past. His Backward block is seriously splintered with Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) walking away with large sections of many backward class voters such as Kurmis, Koeris etc. Laloo's fabled MY (Muslim-Yadav) combination too is in a shambles. JD(U)'s Sharad Yadav defeated Laloo Yadav in the Yadav stronghold of Madhepura. And Muslims see Laloo as a leader, who took their votes, but gave them little more than physical security. His proposal, therefore, is a desperate bid to break new ground.

So, on one side, there is Laloo, and on the other, chief minister Nitish Kumar, who is ruling the state as the head of a JD(U)-BJP coalition government.. The next election is going to be a contest between Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP and Laloo Yadav-led RJD-LJP.

“Koi aisa saga nahin, jisko isne thaga nahin”

(There is not a single close one, whom he has not betrayed), says Laloo, pointing out that Nitish ditched all those who helped him gain power in Bihar.

The Congress, too, has been raising the pitch, but the party has no leader in the state who can match the political acumen and caste appeal of either Laloo or Nitish. The only exception here could be Meira Kumar, daughter of late Babu Jagjivan Ram and Speaker of the current Lok Sabha. But the party clearly does not believe that it can be a major player in the next election. Mahboob Ali Kaisar, a man who could not win his own Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 election, has, therefore, been selected to lead the Congress in the next assembly election as the state party president.

The front-runner in the upcoming elections, therefore, appears to be Nitish Kumar. But what a record Nitish has had of being in office! He started his stint with the promise of restoring 'Bihari Pride' and checking the free run of criminals in the state. But today Nitish has, as his close allies, people like Suraj Bhan, Anant Singh, Munna Shukla, Sunil Pandey and Dhumal Singh - all facing serious criminals charges such as murder, abduction, looting, arson, etc. The chief minister recently admitted into his party Beema Bharti, whose husband Awadhesh Mandal is a known muscleman who has a number of criminal cases registered against him. Nitish also recently admitted into his JD(U) former minster Taslimuddin, who too is facing criminal charges. Nitish met another mafia don Anand Mohan recently. Will he be the next one to join the JD(U)?

Laloo Yadav has composed a new couplet for Nitish Kumar. It goes like this:

"Koi aisa saga nahin, jisko isne thaga nahin".

(There is not a single close one, whom he has not betrayed)

Laloo reels out a list of prominent leaders dumped by Nitish Kumar after they helped to gain power in Bihar. George Fernandes, Digvijay Singh, Lallan Singh, Prabhunath Singh… These were Nitish's closest colleagues in JD(U). But Prabhunath and Digvijay were forced to quit the party, while George Fernandes who was denied Lok Sabha ticket by Nitish, was given a seat in the Rajya Sabha after much persuasion by Sharad Yadav and other remaining senior leaders of the party. Lallan, who had been Nitish's shadow since his days as Union railway minister, has rebelled against him due to his "arrogant and dictatorial style of functioning".

The only Congress leader from Bihar who could match the political acumen and caste appeal of Laloo Yadav and Nitish Kumar is perhaps Meira Kumar, daughter of late Babu Jagjivan Ram, and Speaker of the current

Lok Sabha. But the party clearly does not believe that it can be a major player in the next election. It has, therefore, chosen Mahboob Ali Kaisar, who could not win his own Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 polls, to lead the charge in the ensuing elections

Nitish's party colleagues are not the only ones who are upset over his style of functioning. His ally, the BJP, too is unhappy at the way all the state government schemes have been named after the chief minister and no credit given to the coalition partner. A section of the BJP feels that Nitish Kumar, who came to power with the help of the BJP, will partner the party only as long as he feels that he cannot win election without its support. They feel that Nitish has slowly been eating away at the BJP's support base and the day is not far when he would do what Navin Patnaik did to the party in Orissa. They, therefore, feel that the party should aggressively increase its appeal and strengthen its identity.

But Nitish Kumar's inability to keep friends and his fondness for people with criminal background have not been the most disappointing aspect of his rule. What stands out during his first stint, as the chief minister of Bihar is his attempt to further divide an already polarised society. During his regime, the new buzzwords in Bihar are Maha Dalits and Pasmanda (Backward) Muslims.

While Karpoori Thakur and Laloo Yadav will be remembered in the state for introducing and strengthening Backward versus Forward politics among Hindus, Nitish will be known for his attempt to drive a wedge in the Dalit and Muslim communities. To put things in simple terms, Nitish is trying to divide Dalits into 'poor Dalits' and 'very poor Dalits' and then claim that he is championing the cause of 'very poor Dalits'

Similarly, he is attempting to divide the Muslim community, the core of whose belief is equality of all humans on the lines of Forward and Backward Muslims. Here again, Nitish claims to be championing the cause of backward Muslims.

So instead of working on his promise of restoring 'Bihari Pride' which essentially means getting the people of the state to rise above caste, class and communal lines and work as 'one people' for the development of the state, Nitish has got sucked into the cesspool of competitive caste, class and communal politics. Bihar's wait for the messiah who will deliver it from caste, class and communal politics will have to continue.