The Message from Patna

The day Bharat Ratna was awarded to Karpoori Thakur; it was clear that something is brewing up in terms of defining new contours of the electoral politics in Bihar. Indian political scene from the early 90’s has been dominated by two issues that had an impact on the national consciousness. One, the reservations for the backward classes. Two, the construction of the Ram Janam Bhoomi Temple at Ayodhya. These two issues were codified as Mandal and Kamandal by the political commentators. It witnessed the outbursts of the people on the streets and leading to the nationwide agitations. The things went worst when the open merit students from the general category resented the reservations by indulging in self-immolations on the streets. It ignited the protests against the Mandal Commission recommendations. Rajiv Goswami was the first student who self-immolated himself in October 1990 to bring home the point of reverse discrimination with the open merit students. He was a student of Deshbandhu College of Delhi University. V.P. Singh was the Prime Minister at that time. It was also the time when the situation in Kashmir was at its worst as terrorism reduced Jammu and Kashmir to a lawless state. It is the cocktail of these events that has shaped the national politics at least from 1990 onwards. The crossover of Nitish Kumar from INDIA alliance to the BJP led NDA should not surprise anyone. Nitish Kumar belongs to the class of politicians who forecast the political weather well in time. He has a counterpart in Sharad Pawar of Maharashtra who too is an expert politician and can predict the political weather in advance. Late Ram Vilas Paswan too was an adept in this art of political forecasting. After the construction of the Shree Ram Temple at Ayodhya the issue of social justice has been pending in terms of equitable share for all sections of society. As social justice issue is unaddressed in polity. BJP has played well to close this chapter by co-opting Nitish Kumar. After all he is the one who has initiated the caste based census in Bihar. His coming back to NDA again has a political significance. It is a message to the voter that the Karpoori Thakur Model of social justice will be implemented in some form. After having retained the voters who stood for the Temple at Ayodhya. BJP has played the masterstroke to assuage the sentiments of marginalised classes by welcoming Nitish Kumar to the NDA fold again. This embrace of the Janta faction and the BJP-whose previous avatar was the Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS), is not new. During the emergency era Janta Party (JP) and Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS) held their hands to oust the Indira Gandhi led Congress. Though it is a different story that this experiment ended on the issue of dual membership of the Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS) members. The only rallying point was the anti Congressism .Same indications have emanated again. As the Nitish Kumar led JD (U) have given a clear message in its statements that it is against the Congress and that forces it to come out from the INDIA alliance. Moreover the state of affairs in the newly constituted INDIA alliance that intends take on the Modi led juggernaut is in shambles. With Mamta Bannerjee in West Bengal, Akhilesh Yadav in UP and Arvind Kejriwal led AAP in Punjab pulling in different directions. Nitsih Kumar being a seasoned politician has made his calculations well that the national mood is totally different as and against the INDIA alliance. So in order to safeguard his political career he has made a pre-emptive decision. One thing is clear that both Mandal and Kamandal have been well integrated by the BJP in their political calculus. It will surely have a significant impact on the electoral outcomes in the Lok Sabha Elections in 2024.Indeed politics is the art of possible and Patna has shown that Bihar leads in defining the social undercurrents in terms of electoral gains. Let us keep our fingers crossed to see the political climate in the days to come. In the absence of a formidable, leaderless opposition that too without a national agenda, BJP led NDA has been destined to play the role of both the ruling party and the opposition to keep the Indian polity stable.