After months of silence, why JD(U) is going after RS dy chair Harivansh — ‘sold his conscience’

Harivansh Narayan continued as RS deputy chairman despite JD(U) severing ties with BJP last year. Now his party's fuming over his decision to attend new Parliament building inauguration.

File photo of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh conducting proceedings of the House | ANI

Patna: Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh has left his party, the Janata Dal (United), in a fix after attending the inauguration of the new Parliament building. The JD(U), which boycotted the event, has accused him of “selling his conscience”, but has till now refrained from taking any action against him.

The development has echoes of late Somnath Chatterjee’s defiance of his party’s wish to resign as Lok Sabha Speaker after the Communist Party of India (Marxist) withdrew support from the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2008. Chatterjee had at the time reasoned that the Speaker should remain non-partisan. The CP(M) later expelled him from the party, but he continued as Speaker.

After around 10 months of silence on its MP continuing as Rajya Sabha deputy chairman despite its severing ties with the BJP, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) has spoken out. “Harivansh has sold his conscience to remain in his post. On the day his party was staging a dharna to protest the inaugural function of the new Parliament building, he was not only actively participating in it, but also praised the PM,” JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar told ThePrint.

While addressing the gathering in the new Parliament building after the inauguration Sunday, Harivansh Narayan said: “It is a matter of immense happiness that a new modern Parliament building was constructed in less than 2.5 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

JD(U) spokesperson Kumar, an MLC, said that the party had expected Harivansh Narayan to stay away from the function, “especially after Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had declared that there was no need for a new Parliament house”. 

It is for the party’s national president (Lalan Singh) to take any decision on expulsion, he added.

ThePrint reached Harivansh Narayan through phone calls, but did not get a response. However, his close aide said that since the RS deputy chairman occupied a constitutional post, it would be “inappropriate for him to comment”. 

“Harivanshji did not react to the charges made by the current national president of JD(U) Lalan Singh last year that the vice-chairman was one of the main architects of Nitish Kumar switching sides from Lalu to BJP in 2017,” added the aide.

A tricky situation

The JD(U) has been in a fix over Harivansh Narayan — who they made deputy chairman of Rajya Sabha in 2018 while in alliance with the BJP — ever since it switched sides and joined hands with Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) last August. 

“Since Harivanshji holds a constitutional post, he is not bound to accept the wishes of the party. If Nitishji had asked him to quit and Harivanshji had refused it, it would have meant public humiliation,” said a senior JD(U) leader, not wanting to be named. 

Sources within the party indicated that ever since Nitish Kumar left the BJP, there has been no communication between him and Harivansh. “In December last year, Harivansh came to Patna to promote his book at the Patna book fair. Harivansh did seek an appointment with the Bihar CM, but he was ignored”, the JD(U) leader quoted above, told ThePrint.

“It appears that Harivansh is ready to face expulsion from the party and he has already tilted towards PM Narendra Modi,” said another JD(U) leader, requesting anonymity.

PK adds fuel to fire

Former poll strategist Prashant Kishor has added salt to the JD(U)’s wounds. A day before the new Parliament building inauguration, Kishor, through his ‘political initiative’ Jan Suraaj, replayed his own statement made more than a month ago. He claimed that Nitish Kumar’s efforts to forge a unified Opposition for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls lacked credibility. 

“Nitish Kumar is keeping his channel with the BJP open. Harivansh Narayan Singh is a JD(U) MP. But after he (Nitish) left the BJP, he (Harivansh) has been allowed to continue in his post. The party has not asked him to resign,” Kishore reportedly said in Samastipur Saturday.

Journalist, media adviser to PM, Rajya Sabha MP

Harivansh Narayan, (67), hails from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh, and was close to former prime minister Chandra Shekhar, during whose short tenure (November 1990 to June 1991), he served as media adviser. He has 40 years of experience as a journalist — first in a Hindi weekly based in Kolkata, and then a Hindi newspaper in Ranchi. 

He became close to Nitish Kumar after he supported the CM’s demand of special status for Bihar. In 2014, Harivansh was made a JD(U) Rajya Sabha MP in place of N. K. Singh, former chairman of the Finance Commission of India. 

In 2018, Harivansh was elected deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha with the support of National Democratic Alliance (NDA), defeating the Opposition’s candidate. In 2020, he was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha and re-elected as its deputy chairman.

Harivansh joins a group of leaders like Pawan Verma, N. K. Singh and Prashant Kishor, whom Nitish Kumar had brought into the JD(U) but have since then been disenchanted with the Bihar CM.

(Edited by Gitanjali Das)