5 August 2019 OUTLOOK 13
Political observers find it hard to bel-
ieve that a letter on such a sensitive
subject could be issued by an SP-rank
officer without the knowledge of his
superiors in the department or for that
matter, the chief minister. Nitish, for
one, has always been known to keep his
political cards close to his chest, so
close that even his trusted aides usually
have no inkling of his next move, let
alone allies. He has carefully cultivated
a reputation over the years of being a
leader who hardly takes any step with-
out weighing the pros and cons.
RJD’s national vice president Shiva-
nand Tiwari says it is difficult to accept
that an SP can suo motu take such act-
ion, regardless of what the state police
top brass may say. “How can an SP of
the Special Branch write something like
this on his own without the knowledge
of the Bihar Police headquarters, his
seniors in the Special Branch or the
chief minister?” Tiwari asks.
Political commentators see it as yet
another sign of the chasm between
Nitish and the BJP that has been widen-
ing since the Lok Sabha elections.
Economist N.K. Choudhary says there is
certainly more than what meets the eye
about the drama surrounding the letter.
“The JD(U) and BJP are playing the
game of shah aur maat (check and
mate),” he tells Outlook. “The BJP
thinks that it’s most opportune time is
coming in the 2020 assembly elections,
which will help the party form its gov-
ernment in Bihar on its own (for the first
time), and it now wants to get rid of
Nitish. On the other hand, Nitish under-
stands it well and that is why he is also
building pressure on the BJP through a
letter like this. It is all too obvious.”
Choudhary says the BJP wants to cash
in on the Modi wave in Bihar and it would
like to have an arrangement with the
JD(U) like the one it has with the Shiv
Sena in Maharashtra. “The BJP made the
Shiv Sena toe its line and forced it to play
second fiddle. It has given 15 years to
Nitish to rule Bihar and it would like to
take the reins in its own hands now.”
Nonetheless, both the JD(U) and BJP
have already gotten into the dam-
age-control mode to apparently projectthat everything is hunky dory within
the alliance. The state police headquar-
ters has ordered an inquiry into the
whole episode to fix accountability,
while the BJP has served a show-cause
to Rai for his outburst against the chief
minister. But the cracks in the alliance
had already come to the fore ever since
Nitish declined to join the Modi minis-
try after the elections. The JD(U) had
won 16 seats in Bihar in the general
elections, but the BJP is learnt to have
offered it only one cabinet berth in the
Modi’s government at the time, which
was politely declined by Nitish.E
VEN in the run-up to the parliamen-
tary polls, the chief minister had
specifically asked for the Darbhanga
seat during seat-sharing talks for
his trusted associate Sanjay Jha. But
the BJP turned down his request, field-
ing its own candidate, Gopalji Thakur.
In apparent retaliation, Nitish subse-
quently expanded his ministry, incor-
porating eight new JD(U) ministers,
including Jha. The BJP was reportedly
offered only one berth, which the saf-
fron party chose to not accept.
Ever since the JD(U) and the BJP bec-
ame allies in 1996, they have always had
different stands on three key iss ues—
construction of the temple at Ram
Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya, abrogation of
Article 370 and a Uniform civil code. But
in recent times, Nitish’s different stand
on other issues such as triple talaq has
put their relationship under considera-
ble strain and leaders from both parties
view each other with suspicion.
A section of JD(U) leaders currently
appears to be under the impression that
the BJP is aspiring to form its own gov-
ernment in Bihar after the 2020 assem-
bly elections. They apparently fear that
the saffron party might dump Nitish as
the chief ministerial face of the coalition
at the last minute and leave him to fend
for himself. However, a JD(U) leader, on
the condition of anonymity, says it would
be foolish for the BJP to fancy winning
an election in Bihar without projecting
Nitish as the chief minister. “Remember,
what happened to the BJP in 2015 when
Nitishji had switched sides to fight the
assembly polls as the leader of the maha-
gathbandhan?” he asks. “The BJP was
reduced from 91 to 53 seats in the state
assembly. It will do worse in 2020 if it
parts ways with him.” OPOWER BOND PM Narendra Modi
with CM Nitish Kumar“How can an SP write
something like this on
his own without the
headquarters, or his
seniors, or the CM,
knowing about it?”GETTY IMAGES