THE BJP is already celebrating victory in the Bihar elections clairvoyant farmers who sowed their seeds and can predict a bumper crop without any pest, hailstorm or drought. The ‘angel’ they are looking up to for delivering the rich bounty is none other than the ‘devil’ in the other camp: Laloo Prasad Yadav. If you believe their story, he is their greatest ally, not Ram Vilas Paswan, Upendra Kushwaha or Jitan Ram Manjhi. He is the bogeyman who will drive the horrified masses to them and get them to their goal.
And you wonder, why did Nitish Kumar have to propitiate the bringer of nightmares? As chief minister, Nitish had an extraordinary track record: he had turned Bihar around, and the godforsaken state was going up in development indices. Besides, his integrity was impeccable. He could well have gone to the polls alone. Even if he had lost power, he would not have lost his greatest asset: his credibility.
Sonia, Nitish, Laloo, Sharad Yadav at a ‘swabhiman rally’ organised in Patna as a show of strength against the NDA.
That is the puritanical view. But puritanism doesn’t work in politics. It hap pens to be the philosophy of the sages of religious preachers, scholars, media pundits. Would Nitish have ever been able to oust Laloo from power and end the ‘jungle raj’ he’d allowed without his party, the JD(U), banding with the ‘communal’ BJP? But he has now allied with Laloo to fight the homogenising radical Hindutva raj. Laloo had then called Nitish’s alliance with the BJP immoral; now, the BJP is calling his alliance with Laloo immoral. The real question is: is the BJP's alliance with opportunists like Paswan, Kushwaha and Manjhi moral?
この記事は Outlook の September 28, 2015 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Outlook の September 28, 2015 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Trump's White House 'Waapsi'
Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election may very well mean an end to democracy in the near future
IMT Ghaziabad hosted its Annual Convocation Ceremony for the Class of 2024
Shri Suresh Narayanan, Chairman Managing Director of Nestlé India Limited, congratulated and motivated graduates at IMT Ghaziabad's Convocation 2024
Identity and 'Infiltrators'
The Jharkhand Assembly election has emerged as a high-stakes political contest, with the battle for power intensifying between key players in the state.
Beyond Deadlines
Bibek Debroy could engage with even those who were not aligned with his politics or economics
Portraying Absence
Exhibits at a group art show in Kolkata examine existence in the absence
Of Rivers, Jungles and Mountains
In Adivasi poetry, everything breathes, everything is alive and nothing is inferior to humans
Hemant Versus Himanta
Himanta Biswa Sarma brings his hate bandwagon to Jharkhand to rattle Hemant Soren’s tribal identity politics
A Smouldering Wasteland
As Jharkhand goes to the polls, people living in and around Jharia coalfield have just one request for the administration—a life free from smoke, fear and danger for their children
Search for a Narrative
By demanding a separate Sarna Code for the tribals, Hemant Soren has offered the larger issue of tribal identity before the voters
The Historic Bonhomie
While the BJP Is trying to invoke the trope of Bangladeshi infiltrators”, the ground reality paints a different picture pertaining to the historical significance of Muslim-Adivasi camaraderie
