By D N Singh
The verbal fisticuffs between the NDA or, the BJP in specific, and the Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar bring to the fore the fact that, in politics jealousy protects privilege: an old saying in British political culture.
What appears as clear as that, the NDA has been showing the signs of intolerance from the early phases of the fissure with Nitish. More so pronounced it became when Nitish was seen refreshing his relations with the RJD over ‘Iftar’ parties at the Yadavs.
Then the difference over the caste-based census which the PM turned down on the grounds of time. What added to the jitter of NDA was the latter’s whataboutery on Agnipath as BJP leaders in Bihar were seen chased into hiding by the angry protesters.
All said and done, the fissure had grown wider and at a point of no repair but the NDA went ahead with its last ditch efforts to get Nitish grounded before them.
Nitish won the game by stitching a rag-tag alliance with the RJD and the Congress and left the BJP with a punch on its face.
Nitish has remained a politician who never ever allows his wounds to heal nor does the BJP. Nitish has a habit of teasing and now he is exactly up to that.
First, his initiatives to unite the opposition is not what his detractors had the premonition of and adding to that, the media foresaw in him a prime ministerial face.
That set the ball rolling in the BJP’s court and fairly recently, Nitish has allowed a news in the media that, he would be contesting for a Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh in 2024.
There could not have been more nudging a provocation for the NDA and reactions from leaders like Smriti Irani have started pouring in yet Nitish looks unfazed by all that.
