Opinion The Bihar model

With this resolution, Bihar became the first NDA-ruled state to come out against the NRC.

On Tuesday, even as communal violence sparked by the new, discriminatory citizenship law raged in parts of the national capital, Bihar took an important step in the right direction. Its assembly unanimously passed a resolution against the proposed National Register of Citizens and for a National Population Register in its 2010 format — that is, an NPR which does not include questions that have stoked fears of it being a first step to the NRC. With this resolution, Bihar became the first NDA-ruled state to come out against the NRC. To be sure, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had, in a rally in December, sought to distance his government from the proposal of a nation-wide NRC, which, in tandem with the CAA, has been sharpening anxieties, especially among the Muslim minority. Even so, the fact that Nitish Kumar helmed an unambiguous move that puts his government in the company of states like West Bengal and Kerala on the citizenship issue — even though Nitish continues to support the CAA — and that the state BJP acquiesced and participated in it, is significant. Bihar may even have suggested to India a possible way out of an implacable controversy.

It may well be that hardheaded realpolitik lay at the bottom of the Bihar resolution on Tuesday, not lofty principle or heartfelt anguish at the evident damage being wreaked by the CAA-NRC issue on the country’s social fabric. For Nitish, this may well be an apt moment to prod and stake out a bargaining position with partner BJP — the countdown has begun for assembly elections later this year in Bihar and, after successive defeats in Jharkhand and Delhi, and underwhelming showings in Haryana and Maharashtra, the BJP looks more vulnerable in the states than it has in a long time. The NRC issue also presents Nitish an opportunity to gesture to a Muslim vote that is significant in terms of its numbers and is being wooed by rival parties. On its part, the BJP may have been outsmarted or overtaken by Nitish, or it may have fallen in with his plans because it calculates that, having lost the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, it cannot afford to alienate another important ally in a crucial state. Whatever be the reason, and whatever the motives of the players, however, the Bihar resolution is very welcome. At a time when the citizenship debate has become the trigger and pretext for communal polarisation and violence, and precious lives have been lost, it brings a reassuring touch of moderation.

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The BJP must build on this moment in the state. It must invoke the PM’s statement in December, and now the Bihar assembly resolution, to walk back from the spectre of a nationwide NRC, and to reach out to a minority community that is feeling fearful and insecure. In this volatile moment, it is imperative that the Centre takes its cue from Bihar.