In new company, Nitish Kumar’s new clothes — a lighter shade of ‘secularism’

On Monday, speaking about its latest ally-turned-foe RJD, Nitish said in the Assembly: “Yeh baat karte the inke saath Muslim hain. Kitna Hindu-Muslim ka jhagda hota tha. Idhar hum aaye to Hindu-Muslim ka jhagda kam karte the (These people would say Muslims are with them. There were so many Hindu-Muslim clashes. It was when I took over as the CM that I controlled it).”

While one reason could be Nitish clutching at explanations for his latest change of heart, with Tejashwi daring him to give a “valid reason”, the RJD seized on the significance of the JD(U) leader’s statement.
RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kunar Mehta told The Indian Express: “Nitish Kumar’s statement is a complete volte face of his stance. He looks to be appropriating the divisive politics of the BJP by trying to shift the blame on us. But his logic will not hold as everyone knows Lalu Prasad as the flag-bearer of secularism for having arrested BJP leader L K Advani (and halted his Rath Yatra for the Ram Temple) in 1990. Nitish knows that his vote base is fast shifting towards us, and he is looking for an alibi, at the cost of his core ideology of secularism.”

JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi said Nitish’s statement should not be misconstrued. “The Bihar CM does not need an alibi or certificate on his secular credentials from anyone. His statement should be seen and judged in the context of the law and order breakdown under the Lalu-Rabri governments in Bihar, resulting in both communal and caste violence. The CM was only drawing a comparison. What is true is that under Nitish Kumar in the past 15 years, whether he has headed a government in partnership with the BJP or the RJD, there has not been any major communal violence.”
JD(U) national general secretary Aafaque Ahmad told The Indian Express: “It would be wrong to say there has been a shift in Nitish Kumar’s secular politics. His statement in the Vidhan Sabha should be seen in the context of only the law and order deterioration before 2005 (under the RJD).”

However, the JD(U) may find it hard to defend Nitish’s stance. During his earlier alliances with the BJP, when Nitish was the senior partner by far, he had ensured that any hint of communal tension was nipped in the bud.

Nitish’s former deputy and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi recalled once how the CM would call him and his Cabinet colleague Nand Kishore Yadav in case there was any likelihood of communal tension to say riots should not be allowed to break out.

In fact, when there was a spurt in communal incidents after his last split with the NDA in August 2022, the Nitish-led Mahagathbandhan government had cracked down immediately.

In March 2023, when there was a communal clash in Sasaram around Ram Navami, the state government had cancelled a scheduled programme by Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a precautionary measure.

The same month, Biharsharif saw the death of a person and the torching of an old library with a rich collection of Islamic literature during violence. Again, peace was ensured within a week.

The lone MLA of the AIMIM in Bihar, Akhtarul Imam, who stood with the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan during the trust motion, said after the vote that Nitish no longer stood for secularism in the state. “We have always fought against communal forces. We backed Mahagathbandhan to reinstate our faith in secularism,” Imam said.