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Journalism of Courage
After the JDU-BJP separation in June and the exit of 11 BJP ministers from the Nitish Kumar ministry,the number of ministerial vacancies in Patna rose to 18. All 18 departments are being looked after by the chief minister. When so many departments are with the CM,monitoring and review slow down,governance is a casualty,says Sushil Kumar Modi,deputy chief minister in the erstwhile alliance government in Bihar.
Talk to bureaucrats in Patna,however,and they claim the government is more agile. The truth is,even when they were ostensibly in charge,they the BJP ministers wouldnt know what was happening in their own departments. Projects were planned,initiated and monitored directly by the CM,says a senior JDU minister. The suggestion is explicit: The Bihar government is a one-man show. Ministers,not just of the BJP but also of the JDU,are firmly in the chief ministers shadow.
The other side of the one-man show in Patna is that often,and particularly ever since Nitish Kumar walked out of the NDA,it seems that the Nitish message misses a political machine.
People dont understand why an alliance that was working so well broke up,especially because there is a surge for Modi. Unlike Lalu,who has a blunt way,Nitishs style is suggestive. He signals,doesnt take names. He hasnt been able to convey his message to ground level. People are confused and angry. They hold Nitish responsible,says Sushil Kumar Modi.
Nitishs erstwhile deputy may have a point to prove now,but it is true that the political communication challenge for Nitish has just become more daunting on at least three fronts.
After the JDU-BJP split,many in Patna draw attention to the fact that for the first time since Independence,the state chief secretary and DGP belong to the same caste. It is not incidental that both are Bhumihars,they say. The insinuation is: with the BJP no longer an ally of the JDU,Nitish is forced to placate and pamper upper castes at cost to the interests of backward castes.
Vijay Kumar Chaudhary,former JDU president and currently minister,points out that the JDUs voters are so poor and disadvantaged that even after the split from the BJP,they could still tell you that they voted for Nitish on the kamal chhaap BJPs lotus symbol. We have to take cognisance of that.
Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui asks: Why did Nitish remain in the BJPs lap for 17 years? I have said in the Vidhan Sabha and it has resonated in the community,that we have to fight two BJPs Modis party,and Advanis JDU. Even now,he suggests,the JDU has kept its options open for a post-poll alliance with an Advani-led NDA. The question,now that Nitish has made a dramatic decision,unsettled equations and energised his opponents,is: does he have the party machinery to take his story to the people and counter his opponents?
Shivanand Tiwari,the JDU senior who made a splash at the partys October convention in Rajgir by hitting out at the apolitical coterie that surrounds Nitish and its complacence in the face of the Modi challenge,points to an underlying absence. There is little or no emphasis on party-building in the JDU,he says.
Tiwari gives an instance. With reservations for women and EBCs in panchayats in place,we thought there should be a district level conference,to enable the party to pick up leaders from these groups. This could have helped infuse new blood in the party by taking advantage of the opportunities opened up by governments policy and programme. But nothing was done. The chief minister is a solo player,rues Tiwari,who has been active in organisational work since the 1960s.
The lack of an organised and motivated party machine is especially a problem for a party that is a relative newcomer compared to its rivals,and which does not have a numerically significant vote bank to call its own,like the Yadavs for the RJD,or even the upper castes for the BJP. The coalition of the lower backwards,the EBCs and Mahadalits,that Nitish Kumar has tried to put together is made up of scattered and numerically small caste groups that lack an articulate leadership or a common agenda. These groups are more marginalised and less assertive than other backward castes. They are also most vulnerable to corruption in the lower bureaucracy and upper caste dominance.
In the case of the Muslims,where Modis candidature for PM has stoked anxieties and renewed fears,Niish needs the party machine to carry home the point he has sought to make against Modi in Patna and Delhi. This is especially so given that the JDU lacks Muslim leaders to match RJDs Siddiqui or M.A.A. Fatmi,or even its controversial but powerful Taslimuddin- Shahabuddin duo.
On the first day of the JDUs party convention at Rajgir,a day after Modis rally in Patnas Gandhi Maidan,speakers on the podium thundered against Modis slights to Nitish. His is an act of risk taking. minorities ki pehredari ka kaam kiya hai he has acted to safeguard the states minorities,said MP Monazir Hasan. We need to go to them and tell them that you Nitish have shown your willingness to sacrifice power for their sake,he said.
The party is mindful of the challenge. After the alliance split in June,six teams,consisting of 15-16 leaders each,were sent to the states 243 constituencies to explain the break-up to party workers. Next,rallies will be held at the commissionary level,to galvanise party workers. We are going to start a campaign for the formation of booth level committees a minimum of 15-20 party workers will be identified for every both,says former party president Chaudhary.
On the ground,however,speculation is rife about how the JDU will fare without BJP support. Stories abound of how when the alliance fought elections together in the past,BJP booth committees far outnumbered the JDUs,and of JDU committees with more officebearers than workers.
The JDU appears defiant or in denial,but one thing is clear: by breaking the NDA alliance,Nitish Kumar may have unleashed a political communication challenge his party looks as yet ill equipped to meet.
