Bihar146;s Holi hues

As the three big daddies of Bihar politics threw the gulal around this Holi with child-like abandon to the beat of the dhol, everybody had the same big question lurking in their minds: what, precisely, will the colours of the state8217;s next government be? There was, after all, an assembly in suspended animation awaiting the miracle of life, but any resolution to this effect would require two of these three colour-splattered kurtas coming together in a sustainable coalitional arrangement.

The situation is, of course, rife with possibilities but none of these three gentlemen are prepared to reveal their cards. Just yet. Laloo Prasad Yadav, characteristically deadpan, fields all questions about prospective government formation with the rejoinder that it is his government, after all, that is in power 8212; and to prove it he argues with unassailable logic that isn8217;t he continuing to remain firmly ensconced at 1, Anne Marg? Ram Vilas Paswan, rather enjoying the role of playing the prospective bridegroom to just about everybody, shrugs and says that there will be no government in Patna without his colours to animate it and that he hopes that Nitish Kumar will soon see reason and shed his BJP allies. The very same Nitish Kumar hastens to assure anybody who will listen that there could be an end to the present deadlock very soon and that his party is exploring every possibility worth its name. This is neither here nor there but it is nice to know, nevertheless, that there is some activity going on behind all that gulal.

Meanwhile, the Congress-led UPA government, after getting its toes burnt in the bonfires it had lit in Goa and Jharkhand, is treading very carefully. It doesn8217;t even want to appoint any advisors to the Bihar governor, the Union home secretary informs us, because every effort must be made to bring the 8220;political process back on the rails8221;. But how long this takes is anybody8217;s guess. Bihar continues to wait with bated breath as these three men continue to throw multi-coloured dust in the air.