Yes, it has happened! The PDP and the BJP have let go of their stranglehold on each other's necks! For a party that can attribute its electoral victory in Uttar Pradesh (among other things) to their political stance on the triple talaq, severing ties comes quite naturally. There are times when the BJP does it out of its own free will and, at other times, it is abandoned by its shifty allies. Under such circumstances of exemplary betrayal, it is only obvious for us to wonder about chief minister Nitish Kumar's ever-so-iffy antaraatma. But, as opposed to the speculations, I strongly believe that Nitish and BJP would last a much longer time than analysts think.
The reasons for this are manifold. First, in the history of time, his antaraatma has been known to awaken only once, that too against the increasingly popular RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. While many might think that this was directly related to Nitish's insecurities about himself, I think it is simply because the antaraatma had nothing better to do at the time.
Second, in Bihar, both Nitish and BJP would be booted out if they attempt to contest the elections single-handedly. The BJP has suffered defeat in the recent Lok Sabha and Assembly bypolls at the hands of the Congress-RJD alliance. They are very self aware of their ever-decreasing popularity in the state and would, therefore, be keen to cling onto what can only be termed as Nitish's "erstwhile" public reputation.
The young Yadav scion, interestingly, has been doing everything in his power to underline the Nitish government's many failures. The list is so long that Tejashwi doesn't even have to think too hard before tweeting about it. The level of social security has gone drastically down, which can be linked directly to the lack of employment and higher education examinations. Yadav's popularity graph has seen a clear upward surge, especially after his father's imprisonment. It is noteworthy that in a country where big defaulters like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallaya end be escaping scot-free, Lalu Prasad Yadav is in jail for a comparatively insignificant sum. But a bad deed must not go unpunished... just like Nitish's decision to join forces with the BJP.
From his own point of view, there is no alternative in sight. The RJD would refuse any alliance with his party due to political and personal reasons. The Congress is aware that their own performance in the state is directly linked to the strength of their bond with the RJD. They will never compromise the RJD-Congress alliance. This brings us back to Nitish's plight in such scheme of things. He has been repeatedly snubbed by the top BJP leaders, which is not surprising considering how BJP treats even its own senior leaders like Advani! Nitish also had an ongoing ego clash with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In the gross overview of things, he is the worst placed. Senior JDU leaders such as Sanjay Singh have started making snarly comments against the BJP. News agency ANI recently quoted him as saying: "State BJP leaders who want to make headlines should be kept under control... BJP knows without Nitishji, it will not be able to win. If BJP does not need allies, they are free to fight on all 40 seats in Bihar."
But what the younger leaders in JDU don't understand is that Nitish does not feel this way. Nitish is aware of his political loss and would never pull the plug on the BJP. Thus, we should not think that Singh's comment is Nitish's thought. The sushaasan babu has learned to bow to those stronger than himself and his facade of righteousness has come off. Nitish has trained himself to be a spineless politician.
On a completely different note, he favours untrained teachers for schools in Bihar. Government data itself shows that Bihar is the worst when it comes to the teacher's qualifications as mandated by the Right to Education Act. A whopping 72 per cent of schoolteachers are untrained in Bihar. Nitish had passed a rule saying the elementary teachers in Bihar required no diploma.
Additionally, there is an outbreak of measles in the state which uncovers the government's failure in providing the free vaccine against it. In the light of such revelations, Nitish Kumar seems to be geared to destroy the young breed of Biharis... those who survive measles will be given bad education and those who manage to reach higher education will be faced with no exams in colleges. But even those who get some educational qualification, contrary to the CM's designs, will blame him for their condition. In any case, the sushaasan babu is sure to lose vote of these struggling millions.
