Entire BJP has been bulldozed in name of cadre: Nitish Kumar

TNN

17 June 2013 : Soon after announcing that the JD(U) was leaving the NDA, Bihar CM Nitish Kumarspoke exclusively to Diwakar. In a hard-hitting interview, Kumar said the BJP would be dominated by one person and everybody else had been tamed into submission. Excerpts:

Why did you decide to break the alliance despite BJP’s assertion that it has taken no decision to project Narendra Modi as its PM candidate?

 

In politics you don’t go by the technicalities of statements. Parties take decisions based on their assessment of the situation. The euphoria and celebration in the BJP after the decision in Goa (Modi’s appointment as the chairman of the party’s national campaign committee) left no room for doubt that our "basic concern" that a polarizing figure should not be projected as Prime Minister would not be addressed. After all, there was no similar celebration when Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley were appointed convenors of campaign committees in 2004 and 2009. The writing on the wall was very clear, and we could not have fooled ourselves into believing that nothing has happened.

We would have had only ourselves to blame if we had subscribed to the charade of normalcy. We would have been presented with a fait accompli which would have been completely antithetical to our ideology.

You had an assurance from senior BJP leaders that your views would not be ignored while deciding NDA’s PM candidate? In fact, some of them are reported to have told you that your continuance in the NDA would help them stall Modi in his tracks.

There were many things which were discussed informally. However, the fact is that these things don’t matter. After the developments which have rapidly unfolded, there remains only one relevant fact, that the BJP has entered a new era which will be dominated by just one individual. Everybody else has been tamed into submission and has become irrelevant. Issues and ideology don’t matter. A situation has been created where BJP people in Bihar are wary of praising the achievements of a government of which they were a part. They are scared that they would be seen as running down another "model" of development. People are scared of even talking ofBihar’s asmita (pride). This is not good for democracy. I say this with a sense of responsibility. An entire party has been bulldozed in the name of workers and cadre. Whoever criticizes gets abused on Twitter and Facebook. Abuses are heaped on journalists as well as others, who don’t agree with a particular viewpoint or join in the propaganda. Is this democracy? What happened to right to dissent? All these things helped make up our mind.

But the BJP sees Narendra Modi as their saviour?

A: It is irrational exuberance. The euphoria is of no consequence. It does not reflect the popular mood and opinion. The fact is that we can hope to bring an alternative government only under the leadership of someone who enjoys the confidence of all sections. It is the BJP which is the loser because were are not claimants for prime ministership.

Sushil Modi has said that your decision shows that you are worried that the prospect of Narendra Modi becoming the PM would dent your support base.

There have been a galaxy of OBC leaders; from Jyotiba Phule to Karpoori Thakur and Karunanidhi. But no one became a leader of OBCs just because he was born into a backward caste. People are embraced by communities as their leaders because they have been part of the OBC struggle; because they can feel the pain of backwards. This was why Chaudhary Charan Singh became the leader of backwards of the whole of north India despite being a Jat. BJP has had other backwards as chief ministers too; for instance Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti. Somebody who has been known for his concern for corporates cannot hope to be recognized as the leader of OBCs. Actually it is low-level casteism, and is contrary to the ideals of social harmony BJP swears by. It is interesting that earlier a hype was sought to be created about someone as an MBC leader, and then the gears were shifted and a fresh narrative about OBC leader was created.

For an alliance which worked successfully for 17 years, the divorce was bitter. Don’t you think that acrimony, particularly the sacking of the BJP ministers could have been avoided?

We could not have compromised our basic concern and ideology. We wanted an amicable parting and invited them for a discussion to sort out the modalities, but were spurned. Then their ministers stopped attending to their work, and did not turn up for the meeting of the Cabinet. The Constitution does not recognize a scheme where people can remain ministers even when they refuse to work. People gave me a mandate so that I work for them. I could not have ignored the responsibility.

There is talk about your joining the " federal front".

All that is in the realm of future. I am focused on the present, and my immediate concern is to work for Bihar’s development and to secure "special category" status for the state. And I am satisfied that our decision today has put a spanner in the propaganda machinery that was spinning the perception about someone’s inevitable rise to power.