Nitish Kumar, who started off as a Bihar chief minister with some path-breaking achievements about 23 years ago has turned out to be a proverbial burden on the state.
The leader who earned accolades from both – the then Prime Minister Mohan Singh and his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee – for his stupendous performance, has slipped into inactivity – leaving the concerned citizens clueless about the fate of the state he helms.
The leader who was once known for his distinct voice, rational conduct, and clarity of thought and action is said to have become hostage to a coterie of bureaucrats and faceless politicians who run the state of affairs secretively and clandestinely.
“The honorable chief minister is not taking decisions on his own. Others are taking decisions on his behalf,” says his former deputy turned opponent and leader of opposition in Bihar assembly, Tejashwi Yadav.
Even if one dismisses Tejashwi as a political opponent of Nitish, the fact remains that nobody even close to the chief minister can explain the cloud of ambiguity surrounding 1-Aney Marg, his official residence at Patna.
His personal friends and family members refrain from talking about his physical and mental health. The norm of decency in public discourse disallows a journalist to speculate about his mental health without solid medical evidence.
The people who have mandated him to govern them might expect a medical report on his health. But there is no indication that the system around him is, even thinking in these terms, despite the fact that it is very important in the context that he is the key public figure mandated to shoulder the responsibility of the state.
Nitish away from public glare and the chief minister’s ‘unusual behaviour’
Elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana are concluded. National capital Delhi is expected to vote in the beginning of 2025. The elections in Bihar are still nearly eleven months away from now. But Nitish Kumar always stays in the news.
The media invariably reports about his “unusual behaviour” such as bowing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, throwing away both bow and arrow at the Ravan-vadh event of Dussehra at the Gandhi Maidan of Patna, or putting his head on the chest of his ministerial colleague, Ashok Choudhary.
But such conducts are in stark contrast to the persona of Nitish who was known for his immaculate sense of dress, classical Bihari style and measurement of every word he spoke in the parliament, legislature or on the streets. He was an eloquently coherent speaker. He didn’t possess the richness of A.B. Vajpayee’s poetic disposition or Lalu Prasad Yadav’s gift of gab, but, he possessed the logic and clarity to drive home his points in the Bihari Hindi.
Another aspect that is reported widely is the speculations about his flip-flops. Be it with the BJP or the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the media never stops speculating about his switchover to another camp. However, in previous spells of his switchover, the media got a hint from his action and speculated.
For instance, he had objected to the RJD’s education minister, Chandra Shekhar for the latter’s anti-Sangh Parivar rhetoric, expressed his dissatisfaction at Tejashwi Yadav “taking credit” for the employment in the state and shut the communication lines with other INDIA bloc parties, giving a hint about his switchover to the BJP.
In 2017 too, when he was in alliance with the RJD, he asked his deputy Tejashwi to explain the CBI’s raids on him and went incommunicado for days, indicating his re-entry to the BJP. But the current media reports about his possible switchover are based on the background of his previous flip-flops.
Since, he is completely away from the public glare and scrutiny, and doesn’t act or speak, it’s hard for the media to discover plausible hints about his moves in the run-up to the assembly elections in Bihar.
“He didn’t speak a word in the House when it was in the session recently. In his chamber at assembly he was surrounded only by his close ministers and bureaucrats who kept us away from him”, said senior journalist, Kanhaiya Bhelari, a regular in covering Bihar legislature’s proceedings for well over 30 years.
Again, it was unusual to the style of Nitish Kumar who was known for warmly responding to the journalists, and greeting the people in hordes in the Janata Darbar which he organised religiously for well over 15 years at his 1-Aney Marg house.
Wealth of goodwill due to past development of Bihar
Nitish commands the wealth of goodwill, for he did some path-breaking work in the infrastructure sectors, particularly, roads, bridges and electricity. Soon after he took over as the chief minister in November 2005, he put in place a network of roads through the length and breadth of Bihar. He worked stupendously in the power sector which was in abysmal condition in the state.
He also took several initiatives to augment the literacy rate among youths and empowered the women by giving quota to them in the jobs and education. He also empowered the extremely backward classes and dalits by giving them special preference in the local bodies of governance. He ensured justice to the minorities by giving pension to the Bhagalpur riots’ victims, regularising and hiking the salaries of Madrasa teachers and fencing graveyards of the Muslim community.
The voters rewarded him by electing him repeatedly as the CM. His voters largely stayed with him despite his flip-flops from one camp to another. In fact, his wealth of goodwill lures both the BJP as well as the INDIA bloc to keep him by their side during the elections.
However, his inactivity has turned out to be a great disservice to the people who have reposed faith in him. He doesn’t look like acting and taking decisions. It is widely believed in corridors of Bihar’s power, that a coterie of politicians who don’t command the larger trust of people and bureaucrats “fixed” by the central government are making decisions on his behalf.
It’s a perilous situation, given the fact that only the leader mandated by the people can make policy decisions on their behalf. There is no place for a ‘coterie’ in the democratic setup up which by its very definition stands for transparency and honesty of dialogue between the people and the government. And, the bureaucrats are meant and trained to execute the decisions made by the leader on behalf of the people.
“They (bureaucrats) are the servants who can’t be made the masters of the people”, Lalu Prasad Yadav famously said.
More than indulging in the efforts to keep Nitish in this camp or that, with eyes on immediate political gains, it warrants the larger Indian political system to dispel the air of ambiguity around him. His family members, well-wishers and friends should take care of him if he has slipped into bad health and inactivity. Continuing with him in such a condition doesn’t augur well for the larger health of the state and the nation at large.
Nalin Verma is a senior journalist and author. He teaches mass communication and creative writing at the Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi.
