Why remarks of Nitish ‘Sushasan’ Kumar a surprise in his long politics

After Tuesday though, the JD(U) supremo may find it difficult to put behind another frame: him on the floor of the House describing in detail how literacy makes women aware of how to prevent sex from leading to pregnancy. Having said so during live proceedings, as party leaders behind him squirmed but did not interfere, Nitish repeated the same in the Legislative Council.

When BJP MLC and state president Samrat Choudhary tried to interrupt him, Nitish asked him to keep quiet. But after the speech went viral, the matter was taken up by the National Commission for Women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used it to target the Opposition in poll-bound Rajasthan, and Nitish issued an apology.

In a state where politics has often flirted with risque, and where some like Lalu Prasad have made walking the thin line an art form, Nitish was seen as an exception. Unlike his flamboyant counterparts, including Lalu, Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, he was not seen as a mass leader, but a weighty one. An engineer by training, he could handle the prosaic nuts and bolts of the administration that colleagues showed little patience for.

As the change was reflected on the ground, in infrastructure, in the state’s image, under Nitish as CM, Bihar responded in kind, giving him the label of “Sushasan (good governance) Babu”, much before “Vikas Purush” became a thing. The improvement in law and order, the cycle scheme, the several welfare schemes also earned the JD(U) supremo a base that remained steadfastly loyal: the women.

Having the goodwill of half the population was crucial for Nitish, who comes from a caste (Kurmi) that forms less than 3% of the state’s population. In comparison, Lalu’s Yadav community is 14%.

It is against this backdrop that his comments on Tuesday stand out.

While Nitish has also tried to beef up his support base by wooing the Extremely Backward Classes as well as the Dalits by framing a new definition of Mahadalits, the woman voter provided the JD(U) chief a caste-neutral, party-agnostic constituency, catering to the progressive, welfarist image he courted.

As Nitish never forgot to mention, this was in keeping with the thinking of both his mentor Karpoori Thakur, who first announced a woman quota, and socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohia, who wanted the government to give special attention to women as another disadvantaged group.

When Nitish overhauled the Panchayati Raj system and resumed panchayat elections in 2006, one of his first steps was to set aside 50% seats for women in local bodies. Later, other states followed suit.

His government also reserved 35% seats for women in government jobs during his first term, mostly in the police, in another huge move for gender equality in the state. There are specialised women police battalions in the state now.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, while the UPA came back to power at the Centre, the Nitish-led NDA in Bihar won 32 of the 40 seats. The election was marked by long queues of women voters at poll booths, praising Nitish openly.

In 2010, the NDA won 206 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly elections.

PM Modi’s attack indicates that the BJP will not pass up Nitish’s remarks easily, particularly when the CM has put the BJP on the back foot with his caste survey report.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi, who served several terms as No. 2 under Nitish, when his party and the JD(U) were allies, said the comments were a surprise given how careful Nitish is with his words.

Another senior BJP leader said: “We will keep up the momentum against Nitish. His speech video is damaging enough and we need not do much more. The big woman constituency he had been so proud of now knows the kind of language Nitish speaks.”

But even before this row, there has been a transformation in Nitish, who has had public outbursts, coinciding with the JD(U)’s decline in the state. In the 2020 Assembly elections, it finished way behind both the RJD and BJP. Allies might defer to him still, but that is waning.

Meanwhile, Nitish’s long-anticipated move to a prominent role at the Centre is not working out as per plan.

Asked about opponents’ viewing the changes in Nitish as a sign of his frustration, JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said: “Nitish Kumar has presented a model of inclusive growth… The BJP must not be under any illusion regarding the strong women constituency backing us. They supported our liquor ban too and about 10 lakh self-help groups also tell the stories of women empowerment under us.”

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said there was no doubt in the party regarding “Nitish Kumar’s good governance”. “It has been a role model of development for the country.”