Nitish Kumar: Happy at Modi calling me socialist; dynastic rule and socialism can’t go together

Without mentioning Lalu, he said, “One can look around to see the fate of the ones who have promoted their families in politics. What if one got power through a lot of struggles? Once their family is promoted, it is not socialism. Dynastic rule and socialism cannot go together.”

Endorsing the prime minister’s line on socialism, Nitish said, “Whatever the PM said is totally apt.”

Modi’s praise for Nitish had come after the ruling allies in the state, the JD(U) and the BJP, had sparred over the demand for special category status. Nitish, who did not directly touch on the subject, said, “We have been doing our work quietly and without publicising it much. But one can draw the comparison between the Bihar of 2005 and the Bihar of today to see the difference.”

The chief minister said that socialism meant treating “whole society as a family, not just empowering one’s own family”. While family members of Nitish’s two Bihar contemporaries –Lalu Prasad and the late Ram Vilas Paswan—have been in politics, no member of his family has been.

Modi had counted Nitish along with Ram Manohar Lohia and George Fernandes as true socialists in a recent interview with a news agency.

Nitish also weighed in on the hijab controversy unfolding in Karnataka. “Here (in Bihar) religious sentiments are respected and there is camaraderie and social cohesiveness,” he said.