Patna, Sept. 30: Chief minister Nitish Kumar and his party are gearing up to kick off a campaign to create mass awareness against dowry and child marriage, two social issues that have plagued Bihar and the country for centuries.

The campaign will be launched on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2. The same day last year, Nitish had promulgated the new anti-liquor law which was decried as being more draconian than the previous one.

While the cause is noble, critics are questioning Nitish's motive. They say that after the split with the Grand Alliance, the chief minister wants to ensure the discourse of the state, which currently centres around him, does not go back to the BJP.

'Nitish is a brilliant event manager,' remarked former MP Shivanand Tiwari, who claimed that social campaigns launched by Nitish were always political moves. 'When he holds an event he ensures that the entire focus gets shifted towards it. He wants to project himself as a social reformer, but nothing happens on the ground level.'

Nitish's skills as an event manager were on full display at the Prakash Utsav event to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh and won applause from the national media and pilgrims who came from far and wide. Nitish also ensured that his then ally RJD could not take the credit; all the posters and banners had only Nitish's picture.

This year, Nitish also held the Champaran Satyagraha event to mark 100 years of Gandhi's first civil disobedience movement against the British. Nitish did call Gandhians to Patna but most of them were not allowed to speak.

He also undertook a march. But apart from that even people of Champaran have forgot that it is Gandhi's Satyagraha centenary year.

Another big event this year was the human chain in favour of prohibition - billed as the longest in the world so far.

Nitish clamped prohibition on Bihar last year, making the state dry even at the cost of Rs 5,000 crore loss of revenue and jobs and industry. Undeniably, the dry law has had a positive impact in rural areas and won kudos from women. But critics point out that it has corrupted the police and made them inefficient.

'It has become a mode of minting money for the police and over 80,000 persons have been arrested,' a JDU leader conceded in private. 'Liquor Is still available at a cost. But those who get caught are mostly from the under-privileged sections of the society.'

A few years ago, Nitish asked all his party men to plant trees. There was a massive publicity blitz of JDU leaders planting trees across the state. Less than six months later, most of the saplings had dried. Others recall that during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls Nitish had kicked off a campaign demanding special status for Bihar. He addressed meetings across the state, launched a signature campaign and sent it to the President.

'But today, the demand for special status for Bihar appears to have died down except for some feeble voices making a routine demand,' remarked a senior political leader who wanted to remain anonymous.

'Ever since he has joined the BJP, Nitish has not uttered a word on it.'