(From left) Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and Janardan Singh Sigriwal in Chhapra on Wednesday. (Ranjeet Kumar Dey)

Patna, July 17: In just three weeks, the sheen is off the sushasan (good governance) that chief minister Nitish Kumar flaunted for over seven-and-a-half years.

“There is no government. Whom do I ask to resign,” asked an angry RJD chief, Lalu Prasad, emerging from Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) where sick children from Gandaman Primary School were admitted for treatment around midnight. The sectors which Nitish took credit for — law and order, healthcare and functioning schools leading to enrolment — appear to have collapsed when expected to rise to the occasion. The list could include the disaster management department, which held a meeting almost four days after a natural calamity struck Uttarakhand where hundreds of pilgrims from the state were stuck.

Suddenly, the Nitish era is being compared with the Lalu era. “In fact children dying after taking midday meal was unheard of even in the Lalu era,” remarked former minister Giriraj Singh.

The turnaround in fortunes began on June 24 when the police opened fire at Bagaha in West Champaran district against people angry at the cops’ failure to locate a kidnapped youth. Bagaha residents accused the police of not making any effort to rescue the youth and when the mob came, the police lost their cool.

Later, on July 7, Bihar, for the first time, witnessed a terrorist attack, in Bodhgaya, even after intelligence inputs had warned that the Mahabodhi Mahavihara was on terrorist groups’ radar. The government is now blaming the temple’s management committee.

Now, the death of over 20 children after taking midday meal at Gandaman Primary School in Dharmasati Gandaman near Masrakh in Saran exposes both the health and education departments, which the Nitish regime used to proudly present as “performing” departments. “The failure is two-fold. There is total lack of core infrastructure for cooking food at the kitchen — lack of utensils and quality control. That’s why there have been umpteen complaints of lizards and toads being found in food cooked in the schools. The second failure is in rushing the children to hospital. Though the kids began reporting ill around 1pm, the children began arriving at the PMCH only around midnight. By then, 20 children had died. Essential drugs were found missing at both the PMCH and Chhapra hospital. Many lives could have been saved had they been rushed to the PMCH. A city bus rushing the kids from Masrakh to Chhapra stopped when it ran out of fuel,” said BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Nitish’s former ally, the BJP, has repeatedly alleged that governance has become a casualty after it left the government. “Earlier, when the alliance was intact, chief minister Nitish Kumar used to devote 14 hours a day to governance and just a few hours to politics. Since the split, he devotes 14 hours to politics as he is leading a minority government and his priority is to save his government,” remarked a senior BJP leader. Since the split, the chief minister is saddled with 18 departments, earning opposition taunts that Nitish was avoiding an expansion as it could lead to a revolt within his party.

Education minister P.K. Shahi said there was an attempt to destabilise the government. Shahi though refused to disclose the name of the opposition party, but indicated that it has a strong presence in Chhapra.

“However, if the government starts blaming the opposition for everything, it will not only lack credibility but also look like a lame-duck government,” conceded a JD(U) MLA.

The political fallout of the death of 22 children is already beginning to show. Even as central Congress leaders like Sanjay Nirupam sounded soft on Nitish Kumar, Youth Congress activists were burning Nitish’s effigy in Patna.