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Nitish Distancing from NDA

Nitish Distancing from NDA

The JD(U) chief has reminded the ruling NDA why it must abide by the coalition dharma and not dismiss allies

India’s experiments with coalition governments may have had varying degrees of success, sometimes as that of a keeper of checks and balances, sometimes as deal-breakers for policy implementation. But by and large, India has evolved its coalition dharma with artful management of consensus politics. Alliance governments are now not just part of the political grammar but no party, no matter how big its verdict, can afford to ignore the contribution made by its regional partners. Without that arrangement, there would not have been a combined vote surge or the number of seats. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), should know this too well, now that it is into its third edition. But the huge individual numbers for the BJP (303 Lok Sabha seats, majority being 272) may have led to hubris and a confidence which was definitely not there before the elections. In fact, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his wingman Amit Shah had carefully worked on adding more and more allies, even the smallest, months before the polls, unsure as they were of the verdict. True, numerically the BJP can afford to be blatant but the question is would the numbers appear on the tally had it not been for its notional inclusive approach? It is in this light that the BJP should remember the virtues of flexibility and sensitivity rather than arrogance and rigidity. Had it been wary, it could well have avoided the kind of tiff it had with Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Nitish Kumar.

Nitish was reportedly upset at being offered no more than one berth in the Union Cabinet though he claimed 50 per cent seats of the total NDA tally from Bihar. So he chose to stay out of the government and offer only outside support to NDA3. Not only that, he declared that the JD-U would not join the NDA government in future either if tokenism was the only criterion. Agreed the BJP had a bigger seat tally to justify reducing the quota for allies but during the election, it had accorded some allies like the Shiv Sena and JD-U greater space in seat allocation and had hence built up expectations of primacy. In that case, there should have been equally open talks at the allies’ meet before government formation. In a hitback, Nitish did not include a single BJP member as he expanded his State Cabinet on Sunday and inducted eight of his legislators. Although some firefighting was done saying one seat was left for the BJP, speculation was rife that fissures within the NDA were getting deeper, given the fact that Nitish’s relationship with the BJP has always been uncomfortable, the alliance being one of political necessity than ideological compliance. In fact, Nitish’s socialist belief systems have always been antithetical to the BJP’s  and had not Bihar’s former strongman Lalu Prasad Yadav painted him into a corner, disagreeing with his clean politics than his own dynastic one, Nitish would not have had to make this unhappy compromise. But wily that he is, Nitish is also keeping his self-worth intact by just extending support and not participating in governance, giving the BJP some anxiety before the Assembly elections next year. In fact, most of his State Cabinet inductees are from the backward and extremely backward castes, the numerical consolidation of which has also been the target of the BJP. Besides, if the success of the Biju Janata Dal has proved anything, it is that a fair bit of equidistance helps. By staying out of the government, Nitish is also hoping to get special status for Bihar ahead of the Assembly election. By taking the moral high ground, he is appealing to his electorate. Besides, should the ruling BJP get aggressive about pushing contentious issues like Article 370 or the latest language chauvinism — ideas Nitish detests — he can claim distance on secular grounds. Also, the failure of Lalu and Congress has left Bihar a fertile ground for new political alignments ahead of the Assembly elections. The BJP, too, cannot take everything for granted so early in the day.

Writer: Pioneer

Courtesy: The Pioneer

Nitish Distancing from NDA

Nitish Distancing from NDA

The JD(U) chief has reminded the ruling NDA why it must abide by the coalition dharma and not dismiss allies

India’s experiments with coalition governments may have had varying degrees of success, sometimes as that of a keeper of checks and balances, sometimes as deal-breakers for policy implementation. But by and large, India has evolved its coalition dharma with artful management of consensus politics. Alliance governments are now not just part of the political grammar but no party, no matter how big its verdict, can afford to ignore the contribution made by its regional partners. Without that arrangement, there would not have been a combined vote surge or the number of seats. The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), should know this too well, now that it is into its third edition. But the huge individual numbers for the BJP (303 Lok Sabha seats, majority being 272) may have led to hubris and a confidence which was definitely not there before the elections. In fact, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his wingman Amit Shah had carefully worked on adding more and more allies, even the smallest, months before the polls, unsure as they were of the verdict. True, numerically the BJP can afford to be blatant but the question is would the numbers appear on the tally had it not been for its notional inclusive approach? It is in this light that the BJP should remember the virtues of flexibility and sensitivity rather than arrogance and rigidity. Had it been wary, it could well have avoided the kind of tiff it had with Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Nitish Kumar.

Nitish was reportedly upset at being offered no more than one berth in the Union Cabinet though he claimed 50 per cent seats of the total NDA tally from Bihar. So he chose to stay out of the government and offer only outside support to NDA3. Not only that, he declared that the JD-U would not join the NDA government in future either if tokenism was the only criterion. Agreed the BJP had a bigger seat tally to justify reducing the quota for allies but during the election, it had accorded some allies like the Shiv Sena and JD-U greater space in seat allocation and had hence built up expectations of primacy. In that case, there should have been equally open talks at the allies’ meet before government formation. In a hitback, Nitish did not include a single BJP member as he expanded his State Cabinet on Sunday and inducted eight of his legislators. Although some firefighting was done saying one seat was left for the BJP, speculation was rife that fissures within the NDA were getting deeper, given the fact that Nitish’s relationship with the BJP has always been uncomfortable, the alliance being one of political necessity than ideological compliance. In fact, Nitish’s socialist belief systems have always been antithetical to the BJP’s  and had not Bihar’s former strongman Lalu Prasad Yadav painted him into a corner, disagreeing with his clean politics than his own dynastic one, Nitish would not have had to make this unhappy compromise. But wily that he is, Nitish is also keeping his self-worth intact by just extending support and not participating in governance, giving the BJP some anxiety before the Assembly elections next year. In fact, most of his State Cabinet inductees are from the backward and extremely backward castes, the numerical consolidation of which has also been the target of the BJP. Besides, if the success of the Biju Janata Dal has proved anything, it is that a fair bit of equidistance helps. By staying out of the government, Nitish is also hoping to get special status for Bihar ahead of the Assembly election. By taking the moral high ground, he is appealing to his electorate. Besides, should the ruling BJP get aggressive about pushing contentious issues like Article 370 or the latest language chauvinism — ideas Nitish detests — he can claim distance on secular grounds. Also, the failure of Lalu and Congress has left Bihar a fertile ground for new political alignments ahead of the Assembly elections. The BJP, too, cannot take everything for granted so early in the day.

Writer: Pioneer

Courtesy: The Pioneer

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