Manmohan, Nitish: Pat and praise

Patna, Feb. 7: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today thanked Manmohan Singh for his tweet yesterday describing Bihar as the “fastest growing state” in the country and presenting comparative statistics to back his assertion.

“I am thankful to the Prime Minister for appreciating our efforts,” Nitish said in his reaction through an official communiqué to Singh’s suo motu praise for the state.

“The so called BIMARU states have done much better.. Bihar was the fastest growing state in the country,” read the tweet of “Dr Manmohan @PMO India”.

The statistics uploaded by the Prime Minister shows that Bihar has maintained a growth rate of 10.9 per cent from 2006-07 to 2010-11, against 9.3 per cent of Gujarat. Bihar has also left behind several states, including Punjab, Jharkhand, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Maharashtra, in terms of growth rate. Bengal languishes at the bottom of the list.

Be it by coincidence or by design, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, who is being pushed by the BJP to take national centrestage for the next general elections, had singled out his party’s chief ministers (former and current) for their “fascinating track records” in their respective states.

Singh’s tweet praising Bihar, ruled by the NDA, came on a day he launched an aggressive assault on the BJP, taunting its front-runners as proven failures and daring them with the prophecy of another electoral defeat. “He (the PM) has been an apolitical leader. But now he is playing politics to drive a wedge between the JD(U) and BJP, which Nitishji should be conscious of,” a senior BJP leader said.

Though Nitish’s politics, and ideology, has been rooted in anti-Congressism, signals of a possible realignment have been emitting for some time. Nitish has, of late, gone soft on the Congress whenever the BJP, his ally in Bihar, has intensified its attack on the ruling establishment at the Centre.

For instance, the Bihar chief minister praised the Union Budget presented by finance minister P. Chidambaram on February 28, describing it as “progressive and forward looking”. Nitish patted Chidambaram for promising to revisit the parameters that decide the backwardness of a state — a demand the chief minister has been making for years now. The contrast was stark — his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi of the BJP lashed out at the budget in keeping with his party’s stand.

JD(U) leaders though are still exercising caution. “It is still premature to say that the JD(U) and the BJP are splitting and Nitish will tie up with the Congress. But politics is always a game of options and possibilities. We can simply say that Nitishji has kept his options open with the Congress and vice-versa. Let’s see how the situation unfolds in the run-up to the elections,” a senior JD(U) leader said under cover of anonymity.

The leader, however, took pains to point out that Nitish is on record as having said that he would go with anyone who grants Bihar special status.

Last year, Nitish’s JD(U) had broken ranks with the NDA in supporting the candidature of Pranab Mukherjee for President against P.A. Sangma, who was propped up by the BJP. In what was described as a quid pro quo, the Congress “rewarded” Nitish by according two central universities for Bihar, one at Gaya and another at Motihari, the chief minister’s choice location.

The Prime Minister’s praise of the Bihar growth story has come about a week ahead of Nitish’s “Adhikar Rally” at the Ramlila ground in New Delhi to press his demand for special status to his state. Nitish wants to amplify his demand closer to the decision-makers at the March 17 show.

The reports of the “growing proximity” between the JD(U) and the Congress has given anxious moments to the Lalu Prasad-led RJD. “By praising Nitish off and on, the Congress central leadership has weakened Lalu Prasad’s campaign against the Nitish government,” conceded a RJD leader. “ The Congress should work in tandem with Lalu Prasad, still the main face of the Opposition in Bihar, to dislodge the Nitish regime that is fast earning the wrath of the people,” he added.

Some senior Congress leaders conjectured that the Prime Minister may have praised Bihar’s growth story to “soften up” Nitish ahead of his Adhikar Rally in Delhi. “If Nitish, so far the strongest BJP ally, adopts a soft stand, it will automatically neutralise Narendra Modi’s and the BJP’s shrill campaign against the Congress in the run-up to the elections,” a senior Congress leader said.