Yet another episode of unscrupulous trickery has materialised in Bihar. The general who had been gathering forces ostensibly to save the realm has, Coriolanus-like, thought it best (not for the first time) to go join the enemy. This latest coup by India’s political Houdini is, no doubt, undertaken in the “national interest”; once more, it underscores the truth of that high-minded claim sung in the movie Jish Desh Mei Ganga Behti Hai :
“Hontoun pe sacchai rehti hai/ Yehan dil mei safai rehti hai/ Hum uss desh ke vaasi hein/ Jish desh mei Ganga behi hai
(Truth on our lips, purity in our heart/ We are the people of the land/ Blessed by the flow of the River Ganga).
The corollary to the new Nitish-antic is that the media, by and large, feels less reviled by this unprincipled shift and is more outraged by the greediness of the Congress in not having risen in time to Nitish Kumar’s selflessly Herculean determination to oust the ruling right-wing from power.
You see, if the corporate-chummy “nationalist” ruling party is to be kept in the saddle, the media must never cease to find the Congress in the wrong, whatever journalistic calisthenics the job may entail.
If poor Trump has but one Fox News backing him, our greater Modi ji has a bevy of them, after all.
Which is not to say that the Congress is not often blameworthy for being out of sync with the content and pace of moves on the political chessboard.
The plain truth of the matter
Knowing that in Bharat the appellation “corrupt” applies only to financial sleaziness, never to unethical political practices (smartly duplicitous leaders, if anything, are often lauded for being the true inheritors of Chanakya), Nitish Kumar, having had enough of the Bihar chief ministership, had India’s prime ministership in mind.
For that to happen, he had to have a new political conglomeration foregrounding his selfless cause.
Mallikarjun Kharge’s elevation, by common consent, as “chairperson” of the INDIA alliance brought bad news to Nishit Kumar in that context.
The next best thing, therefore, to the prospect of seeing an alternative government with Kharge and the Congress at the helm was to make as sure as possible that the current dispensation carried on with him in the familiar chief minster’s chair after taking yet another principled, oath of office.
To wit, bird in hand is always better than two in the bush.
The Congress may be blamed for having speculated that the next Nitish somersault may well happen if and when an alternate INDIA government came to power.
On record, what is there to say this could not have happened, given Kumar’s never-ending creativity?
Nor might the Congress have been the only component of the alliance to have such tribulations on their mind.
Better, therefore, that Kumar was given full play to reach his conclusions than be sorry afterwards.
Now that the deed is done
Lalu Prasad Yadav and other federal leaders of the alliance will never be applauded by the current slew of India’s upright media for having stood their ground against right-wing sectarian ideology, as we know, at great cost to themselves and their political prospects.
But this is truly their moment.
With the ever-swinging JD(U) out – noting that many of its members are as unhappy with what Nitish has done as are those outside the party – there is the opportunity to firm up a truly secular and people-friendly common agenda, and take it to voters, especially in Bihar, who can be heart-warmingly heard, in such programmes as News24’s Mahoul Kya Hai to express their disgust at Kumar’s latest turn-over, predicting a rout for the BJP/JDU coalition come the hustings.
This will require the Indian National Congress to evidence a new sense of solidarity and urgency.
Even as the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra continues to make mass public contact and necessary ideological groundwork, equal, if not more energetic and visibly credible, primacy needs to be given to comport with all remaining segments of the alliance in order to ensure a real electoral challenge to the BJP.
As Kharge has rightly cautioned, were the coming national election to be won again by the Modi-led right-wing, a Putinesque order may well come to be a reality in India.
That leads to the conclusion that should the Rahul-led Yatra fail to become a cutting-edge instrument in furthering the electoral prospects of the alliance, the conclusion of the next election could make its heroic efforts redundant for a long time to come.
If the Congress wants to use the current campaign to obtain numero uno status as a party, it might need to rethink that objective for now, and yield to the more pressing task of uncomplainingly leaving room for federal forces who might be better placed, on objective scrutiny, to show successful results in constituencies under discussion.
This may not be easy, given that the Congress after all, has been the chief ideological engine and nation-builder since the freedom movement.
But history is unforgiving, and this may not be the time to drive home that record to the detriment of ensuring that another successful emancipatory result is realised in a few months from now.
Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.
