New Delhi/Patna: When Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar attended an iftar party Monday, just days after communal violence erupted in the state on Ram Navami, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders lashed out at him on two grounds. One was his alleged “politics of appeasement” and the other was the backdrop of the iftar event — a huge image of Delhi’s Red Fort, which has been interpreted as a sign of his prime ministerial ambitions.
Adding to the latter impression was that posters showing Nitish and the Mughal monument were also spotted at locations across Patna Monday, including prominently at the office of his party, the Janata Dal (United), or JD(U). The posters are being seen as a taunt directed at the BJP, which has been engaged in a blame-game with the JD(U) over the communal violence in Bihar.
The Red Fort has long held special significance as the site from which the PM of India hoists the national flag on Independence Day.
Nitish himself has earlier denied wanting to be PM, but a section of his supporters is vocally wedded to the idea, including JD(U) MLC Khalid Anwar, who organised the iftar event at the Islamia B.Ed College in Patna’s Phulwari Sharif. Anwar also admitted to putting up the other posters.
“Nitish Kumar is the PM candidate for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. There will be peace and prosperity in the country once he takes over as PM,” Anwar told ThePrint.
Mrityunjay Tiwari, a spokesperson for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), also defended Nitish’s credentials. “Nitish is PM material as he has experience in running a Union ministry, has been a state CM, and has a vision to run the country,” he said.
The RJD and Congress have been in an alliance with the JD(U) since last August, when Nitish walked out of his partnership with the BJP in the state.
Meanwhile, state BJP leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP and former deputy CM Sushil Modi, have mocked the idea of Nitish being PM.
Speaking to reporters this week, Modi said that no one could become PM just by taking a photo in front of the Red Fort. “If Nitish snaps himself outside the White House, it won’t make him President of the USA,” he quipped.
Janak Singh, chief BJP whip in the Bihar assembly, was similarly dismissive. “It’s like Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne,” he told ThePrint, referencing a classic Hindi TV series about a consummate daydreamer. “Nitish hasn’t been able to control Bihar and now he dreaming of becoming PM.”
In a similar vein, Samrat Choudhary, who was elected as the Bihar BJP president last month, said “Nitish is happy that he will become PM merely by looking at the Red Fort”.
On Wednesday, JD(U) leader and state minister Vijay Choudhary told ThePrint that too much was being read into the posters.
“Nitish was not aware there would be a Lal Qila background at the iftar, and he has no ambition of becoming the prime minister. He only wants to unite opposition parties, he said.
However, the iftar and the posters seem to have had quite the opposite effect, coming at a time when tensions were already high due to the communal conflicts in the state.
Political heat, iftar furore after Ram Navami clashes
One of the main reasons why Nitish Kumar is being ridiculed for the Red Fort images is due to the communal violence that erupted in Rohtas district’s Sasaram as well as Bihar Sharif in Nitish’s home district Nalanda after Ram Navami on 30 March.
With communal tensions and curfew-like conditions still prevailing days later, Nitish’s attendance at the iftar on 3 April was criticised by BJP leaders as a sign of appeasing one community.
Even All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi criticised the Bihar government for its “complete failure” in preventing the violence and slammed Nitish for having “no remorse” since he attended the iftar but did not visit Nalanda.
When Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Nawada to participate in a rally Sunday, he taunted Nitish Kumar, stating that his desire to become the Prime Minister would remain unfulfilled as there is no vacancy.
He also hit out at Nitish for the poor law and order situation, adding that if the BJP returns to power in the state in 2025, it would “hang rioters upside down”.
Since then, BJP leaders from Sushil Modi to Ravi Shanker Prasad have attacked Nitish Kumar for creating “jungle raj” in Bihar.
Nitish did not respond immediately to Shah’s jibes, but he did make some thinly veiled digs Wednesday about those who had allegedly “orchestrated” the riots.
“One is the ruler who is enjoying power, and the other is his agent,” he said, adding that an inquiry would reveal the truth about the communal violence.
“The riots last week were planned thoroughly. No wonder, one of the places, Sasaram, happened to be where he (Amit Shah) was supposed to visit. And the other was Bihar Sharif, a town which is dear to me,” Nitish reportedly said Wednesday. He also called Owaisi an “agent of the BJP”.
Targeting Shah’s comments about taking strict action against rioters, Nitish referenced the “arrest of a BJP leader’s son” after Ram Navami violence in the state in 2018. He was apparently alluding to Arjit Shashwat Choubey, the son of Union minister Ashwini Choubey, who had been bailed soon after his arrest.
In several tweets this week, JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan ‘Lalan’ Singh lambasted Amit Shah. In one tweet Tuesday, he addressed the Home Minister’s Nawada speech, claiming that it showed the BJP was “desperate” and “using” the governors’ of opposition-ruled states as political tools.
“There will be BJP-free India in 2024, the Badka Jhutha Party (big liar party) will get zero from Bihar,” said the tweet written in Hindi.
The riots have led to stormy scenes in the Bihar assembly too, with BJP and JD(U)-RJD leaders pointing fingers at each other over the reasons for the violence. The speaker was forced to adjourn the house Monday when matters started going out of hand.
On Wednesday, too, a heated argument on the issue broke out between JD(U)’s Vijay Chaudhary and opposition leader Vijay Sinha. BJP MLA Jivesh Mishra had to be removed from the assembly by marshals Thursday after a ruckus broke out yet again.
Red Fort posters ‘to make BJP nervous’
The timing of the Red Fort posters in Patna was no coincidence, according to JD(U) sources who spoke to ThePrint.
“Anwar pasted these posters at various locations as a deliberate attempt to taunt the BJP, which has been criticising Nitish Kumar for the deteriorating law-and-order situation,” a JD(U) leader claimed.
“The BJP gets nervous when anyone questions the credentials of Modi and draws parallels with him,” he added.
BJP leaders, on the other hand, argued that Nitish’s popularity was declining and the Red Fort posters would merely diminish goodwill towards him.
“Our aim is to establish that he is power-hungry and desperate to become the Prime Minister. He is losing his grip on power, and his rule is akin to jungle raj,” said a BJP leader.
Notably, iftar events have some historic significance in Bihar politics. Last April, Nitish had attended an iftar party at RJD leader Rabri Devi’s residence, sparking speculation that the two former rivals may be heading for a politically expedient patch-up. Nitish, then still in an alliance with the BJP, had insisted that his attendance had “nothing to do with politics”, but months later, the two parties had joined hands.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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