Nitish Kumar ko gussa kyon aata hai? Bihar looks on as CM flies off the handle – again

On Wednesday, the Bihar Assembly was again witness to the angry Nitish, when he lashed out at RJD Masaurhi MLA Rekha Paswan, for interrupting him. At the time, the CM was trying to tell the House that his government intended to go to the Supreme Court against a High Court order staying a quota for the backward community. Claiming sole credit for the caste survey that cleared the way for the quota, Nitish told Paswan: “Mahila ho, kuchch jaanti ho (You are a woman, do you know anything)?”

He then went on to reiterate that his government had done the most for women of the state.

On Thursday, several Opposition MLAs in the Bihar Assembly sported black scarves in protest against Nitish’s “disrespectful behaviour towards women”.

Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, who has himself been at the receiving end of Nitish’s outbursts, has called the CM a “habitual offender” in insulting legislators, and slammed his “I alone know it all” attitude.

Those who have been watching Nitish for a long time trace his changed demeanour to the 2020 Assembly poll results, which saw the JD(U) pushed to the third spot, with even the BJP ahead of it. While partners-by-turn BJP and RJD did not seek to dislodge Nitish and claim the CM post for themselves, it has not been lost on the JD(U) chief that he is on borrowed time. The JD(U) did finish on a par with the BJP in the recent Lok Sabha results, but the latter is seen as having pulled it along.

Soon after the 2020 Bihar results, the new Nitish was visible when in November that year, he lashed out at Tejashwi inside the Assembly after the RJD leader raised an old, pending criminal case against the CM. “Yeh khaali jhooth bolta rehta hai (He keeps telling lies),” Nitish said, going on to tell Tejashwi that it was thanks to him that he had enjoyed a stint as Deputy CM.

Nitish’s media interactions post results soon became all about his government’s achievements. “Aap log toh janbe karte hain… Kuchh tha ji yahan (You people know very well… Did Bihar have anything)?” he told reporters in response to questions.

From there to the blood pressure machine took a few months. But a year later, in March 2022, Nitish was caught in an unseemly spat in the Assembly with Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha, elected on the ticket of the BJP, which was then a JD(U) ally. The dispute was over an investigation regarding police action in Sinha’s constituency Lakhisarai under the Bihar prohibition law, and whether a matter under probe and pending before a Privilege Committee could be raised on the floor of the House.

Nitish was not happy about Sinha asking Cabinet minister Bijendra Yadav to apprise the House about the steps taken, while hinting that the accused linked to the JD(U) had been let off.

In December 2022, Nitish, by now the Mahagathbandhan CM, lost his cool when BJP MLAs in the Opposition tried to corner him over the Chhapra hooch deaths. “You people were also there (in government, when anti-liquor laws were enforced in 2016). Ab tum log bhi sharabi ho gaye. Nahin bardasht karenge, baahar nikalo inko (Now, you all have also become alcoholics. I won’t tolerate this, throw them out),” Nitish said.

A year later, in November 2023, Nitish rained down on former Bihar CM and ex-colleague Jitan Ram Manjhi over the Bihar caste survey. As Manjhi said in the House that “the ambit of the caste survey could have been bigger”, Nitish said: “Isko kuchh pata hai (Does he know anything)?” He then said on the House floor that he had made “a great mistake” in making Manjhi the CM in 2014, a post Manjhi held for a short time after Nitish stepped down peremptorily following the JD(U)’s disastrous two-seat performance in that year’s Lok Sabha polls.

Outside the Assembly too, Nitish has often let it fly, with lately “preference for English” getting his goat. In February 2023, a progressive farmer from Lakhisarai was the subject of his fury, while in March that year, he got angry over a display board in English inside the Bihar Legislative Council.

In December 2023, when the parties which would later become the INDIA bloc held a meeting in Patna, the JD(U) chief – otherwise the picture of a gracious host – took everyone by surprise when he lashed out at T R Baalu of the DMK for seeking a translation of his speech.

Everyone should learn Hindi because “Hindi is a national language”, Nitish insisted.

A month later, Nitish had changed sides to the BJP, dumping the INDIA bloc.