By D N Singh
Every democratic structure rest on the balance of the ruling and the opposition offering the required traction from both sides.
That’s the beauty of it and for quite many years India appears lacking that toehold where the opposition somehow suffers from that thing called unison.
However, things in politics change and sometimes very rapidly.
The developments which took place in Bihar, Nitish Kumar, chief minister, has after a long hiatus has been able to bring several political parties, including the Congress, under one umbrella and thwart all the designs crafted by his opponents to out seat him.
But he stood strong against the headwinds from the other camp and did his homework rather meticulously without an hint for his enemies to guess what was cooking within his mind.
All said and done, Nitish’s crafty political acumen and success in stitching an alliance has generated new hopes in the opposition camp that, yes, here is the time the opposition should stop crystal ball gazing and get up from its slumber to see what Nitish did.
There are secrets in politics, which one must learn to hide from himself sometimes. That Nitish did demonstrate , braving the huge challenge from his now main political rival, the BJP.
One thing that Nitish’s thumbs up in Bihar, despite his arithmetic of numbers, that efforts pay dividend and that too he has been able to rope in the Congress, was no easy task.
Now there are chatters from several political quarters that, Nitish, most likely emerge as the David in the days to come.
He may breathe steam into the opposition and qualifies to be the face of the opposition in 2024.
In him many political parties must have noticed the political composure at worst times. His way of dissociating himself from the NDA was unique.
If one knows the art of controlling the past, can control the future also. That being the realization, the Samajwadi Party, BSP, TMC, JMM, DMK, the Left, TSR, YSR Congress, Shiva Sena, INLD, AAP and JD(S) plus many other political outfits may find a ray of hope to project Nitish as the next prime ministerial face of India.
However, in politics or any other field, one cannot underestimate the enemy. So, a matured and cadre based national political party, the BJP cannot be expected to a mere onlooker.
There in the BJP war room the discussions must have started to be breezy and it may not be that easy for the combined opposition steamroll the saffron ideology.
Who controls the past controls the future
If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yours
