Nitish's ATOM Politics .... Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard/ April 24, 2016

Nitish's ATOM Politics May Well Set Contours of Confrontation for the Next Election

The road to good intentions is paved with hellfire. Any foolproof planning in Indian politics missing a clear roadmap promises more chances of failure than fortune. Slogans can ignite riots but cannot deliver victory in war. Without even waiting for the outcome of the recent Assembly polls, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has announced his vision and mission with sass and sauce. PM Narendra Modi wants a Congress Mukt (Congress-free) India, but Nitish has blown the bugle for all non-BJP parties to gather under his banner to establish a Sangh Mukt Bharat (RSS-free Bharat) to save the democracy.

Nitish began his first stint as the JD(U) chief with the ideological intention to polarise the two national parties along political groupings. His clarion cry appears to have united all non-BJP parties to oust Modi in 2019. But both his admirers and detractors are baffled about this hurry in going public. Is he convinced that Modi is losing charisma and acceptability faster than anyone expected? But Nitish’s moves clearly reveal that he has declared war on the Saffron Parivar. He has projected himself as the only credible alternative to Modi. His promoters are convinced that he is as clean as the PM. They feel his Vikas Purush tag is equally convincing if not more than Modi’s.

Since Nitish has the advantage of rallying the minorities behind him and attracting a load of liberal and secular middle class votes, they have decided to demolish the PM’s core credentials. He had venomously said, “Management is more important than event management.” It is evident that Nitish has drawn up his field guide well and formulated a strategy for a long-drawn-out battle. He had made an attempt to forge a Bihar-type Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Assam, but failed after the Congress refused to surrender its space.

The timing and tone, however, of the Bihar CM’s declaration are interesting. He, along with RJD chief Lalu Prasad, sprang a surprise by stopping the Modi juggernaut in the state by scoring a decisive victory over the BJP in 2015. While the BJP’s defeat raised questions over its invincibility and Modi’s popularity, it also emboldened Nitish to extend the Bihar experiment to other parts of the country. He is aware of the ground reality that almost all the non-BJP parties, including the Left, are feeling insecure under Modi’s dispensation. The Congress dreads the lethal use of government apparatus to not only topple its governments in smaller states, but also to dig up dirty pasts of many of its senior leaders and former and current CMs. To add fuel to the fire, the Modi government is moving at bullet train speed to dismantle all the institutions controlled by the Left and anti-RSS elements.

In reality, Modi’s direct confrontation with non-BJP parties, including some of its regional allies, is creating a favourable environment for the creation of a political alternative. Historically, credible substitutes have emerged against powerful personalities and their actions, which their opponents projected as a threat to democracy. Nitish’s plan is to portray Modi as an intolerant and arrogant leader, who along with the RSS, his ideological mentor, poses a serious threat to the nation’s unity and secular character. In 1977, Jaiprakash Narayan brought all non-Congress parties together to oust Indira Gandhi after she imposed the Emergency and suspended fundamentals rights.

Parties, from the north to the south, sacrificed their partisan interests with the singular aim of defeating the Congress and demolishing Indira’s leviathan leadership. The experiment lasted for less than 30 months, as the elements, which came together to challenge her, started to squabble. The first ever anti-Congress initiative died an untimely death with Indira’s triumphant return to power in 1980.

For the next nine years, the Congress once again acquired total control over national politics. It won most of the state polls in 1980 and later harvested a record number of over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha after Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Rajiv Gandhi was seen as an agent of change for a better India. But his charm faded even earlier than his promoters expected. Once again, corruption emerged as the ubiquitous glue to bring all the non-Congress parties, from the CPI(M) to the BJP, occupy a single platform to remove Rajiv and his coterie. There was a difference though. Unlike 1977 when the Janata Party plunged into the electoral battle without a PM candidate, the Opposition fought the 1989 election under the leadership of Congress rebel V P Singh who enjoyed a reputation for impeccable integrity. Their motto: defeat Rajiv, who was leading a corrupt government.

For the next decade, Central governments were formed on the basis of opportunistic alliances in which individuals, not ideology, played a decisive role. But Modi changed the rules of the political battle. Soon after winning the Gujarat elections in 2012, he planned his move in advance to take over 7 Race Course. He tried to bring smaller parties together, with the weak Manmohan Singh—who was protecting and leading a corrupt government—as his target. It was for the first time that a Lok Sabha election was turned into a Presidential election by another name, in which Team Modi converted the war into a struggle between the indomitable, clean development man Modi versus Manmohan. Modi won without even a symbolic fight.

Today Nitish wants to convert the next Lok Sabha election into a conflict between two individuals backed by distinctive ideologies. He tried to lead the anti-BJP coalition when he left the NDA in 2013. It failed to take off. Even now, his resolve to forge an ATOM (alternative to Modi) has run into hurdles posed by leaders like Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav, a section of the Congress and other regional leaders. At the moment, Nitish enjoys the full backing of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. But they can also put spanners in his works in progress, and both are unacceptable to the Congress. Moreover, the Congress wouldn’t like anyone to give the impression that it has accepted Nitish over Rahul to lead the anti-Modi campaign. Rahul has the advantage over Nitish since his party and family are still a draw across the country. Nitish, however, has defined the contours of confrontation for the next election. The Opposition not only wishes Modi would lose his sheen, but also expects 900 million voters to give a chance to another individual, ignoring the absence of an ideological identity. For now, however, it is an uneven battle between the omnipresent Modi, the vaguely visible Nitish and the occasionally visible Rahul Gandhi.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

History Repeats Itself as Individeuals..... Power & Politics / The Sunday Standard/ August 30, 2015

History Repeats Itself as Individuals Vie to Replace Another Individual, Not Ideology

(From left) Hardik Patel, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar

A fourth-century Sanskrit text on statecraft says the enemy of an enemy is a friend. Hence, they make strange political bedfellows. On the face of it, 22-year-old Hardik Patel, Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar have little in common. Each of them come from different socio-economic backgrounds. The neo-Mandalite Patel and the other two are educationally and culturally non-compatible. But they are peas in a pod in style and substance. All three are byproducts of agitational politics, be it fighting against corruption or caste discrimination. They are unambiguously ambitious and intrinsically individualistic in their political philosophy. They also share the same mission: to bring down Narendra Modi.

‘Quota warrior’ Patel rose like a self-propelled nemesis to strike at the very roots of Gujarat model of governance, which had catapulted Modi as India’s PM. It was Modi who demolished Nitish’s dream of becoming an alternative PM candidate of the secularistas. Kejriwal’s promoters are fully convinced that he possesses the necessary qualities to lead the nation. The troika’s rise and magnetic might is not only diverting attention from the well-publicised decisions of the NDA government but also indicates the erosion of popular support of the local BJP leadership in various states.

Patel stands head and shoulders above the other two. Rarely before in global politics has a 22-year-old rookie brought a state like Gujarat to its knees, grabbed headlines and national mindspace. A novice with hardly any financial or political support, Patel was just an ordinary hanger-on at various political rallies, including AAP’s, till recently. He and Kejriwal are around the same height, but to scale new heights, he has chosen the AAP chief as his role model in organising choreographed protests—1.4.million supporters and over 80 rallies across Gujarat. His audience don white caps with ‘Hun Patidar Chu (I am a Patidar)’ inscribed on them. He is called Hardik Kejriwal by some and the New Modi by his cohorts. In less than six months, not only could he force the Gujarat government to place half the state under curfew, but also mobilised millions to demand reservations in jobs and educational institutions for a community which is vastly rich and powerful. The irony is that, reportedly, the commerce graduate scored less than 50 per cent marks from Ahmedabad’s Sahajanand College. But he is an astute political student. His protest meets, TV appearances and communication style bear an eerie similarity with Modi’s. Ostensibly Patel is agitating for reservation. But his real intention is to fill the political space vacated by Modi in Gujarat. He hasn’t attacked the PM. Not yet. But his speeches are meant to threaten Modi and the saffron party—saying if his demands are not met, he will not “allow the lotus to bloom” in Gujarat and defeat it in the 2017 Assembly elections. As long as Modi was CM, no political organisation or individual could collect more than 10,000 people to champion any cause. But Patel has understood the weakness of the BJP’s current state leadership and has decided to imperil it by playing the new Patel. The paradox is he has managed to raise popular animosity against a state government led by a Patel CM. This poses a challenge to NaMo. Patel and his community would try derail the PM’s bid for a second term in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by forcing Modi’s party to lose in his own state. NaMo has understood the negative impact of Patel’s agitation on his image. So, he decided to appeal directly to the people through a short televised statement. It would be anathema to Modi if the BJP lost in Gujarat when he holds the highest political office in India.

As Patel attempts to minimise the authority of India’s maximum leader in Gujarat, both Kejriwal and Nitish have forged a coalition of convenience to achieve the same objective in Bihar. Nitish is a child of the JP revolution. Though AAP doesn’t have any significant presence or a credible face in Bihar, Delhi’s CM chose to join the Lalu-Nitish combo with the objective of manufacturing a non-BJP and non-Congress platform. Kejriwal may not be a caste commander, but he is still one of the most iconic leaders on the national scene. Many young, educated youth still see in him a guerrilla combating a corrupt political system. As he continues to adopt an aam aadmi lifestyle—Kejriwal hasn’t changed his simple shirt-and-trousers attire, nor does he travel with a caravan of armed escorts, and talks to anybody and everybody—he enjoys more credibility than Nitish among a certain vocal section of the electorate. Kejriwal has a major axe to grind against NaMo who defeated him decisively in the Varanasi Lok Sabha election. On the social media, Modi and Kejriwal are among the top favourites. While Modi with 14.6 million Twitter followers leads, Kejriwal is the most popular non-BJP and non-Congress personality with 5.40 million followers. Other prominent BJP ministers trail far behind. Both Modi and Kejriwal have an army of dedicated bhakts who troll each other almost on a minute-to-minute basis. By plunging into the Battle for Bihar, Kejriwal stands to gain more than Nitish. He has been targeting the PM directly for the decisions taken by Union ministers. A win would dent Modi’s authority and enable Kejriwal to strike a much better bargain to join the league of national leaders.

Nitish harbours similar ambitions. It is for the first time that he would be leading an electoral engagement without the BJP as his ally. He challenged Modi by walking out of the BJP-JD(U) coalition in July 2013. Now he desires to prove that he can defeat Mighty Modi. For this, he has shown the expediency to be backed by his sworn enemies from the past.

So, is it just a coincidence that both Kejriwal and Nitish are confabulating on all issues? Kejriwal has shown so much faith in the Bihar police that he requested Nitish to send a few of his police officers to manage the anti-corruption unit of the Delhi government. The two have been sharing even non-political platforms. Even in the past, many political satraps have joined hands to defeat powerful figures such as Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. But it is for the first time that homegrown leaders are blowing trumpets, not to provide an unalloyed alternative political model but only to make the Modi model irrelevant. History repeats itself as some individuals engage in combat just to replace another individual instead of an ideology.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on witter @PrabhuChawla

The Outcome of the War ........ Power & Politics/ The Sunday Standard/ June 14, 2015

The Outcome of the War in Pataliputra Will Lay Future Contours of Road to Indraprastha

Power corrupts even the saintly. The insatiable hunger for absolute power corrupts ideology, absolutely beyond redemption. An elegy of moral belief is being penned in Bihar as the countdown for the crucial Assembly elections begins. Individuals seeking power at any post and cost are incinerating ideologies. Hence, the irony of opportunism was lost on Bihar CM Nitish Kumar when he drove down to the residence of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi—who had accused him of duplicity in 2010—to strike a political deal to contest the elections. For the past 40 years, Patna’s political pugilist has survived and thrived by fighting the dynastic ethos of the Congress. Nitish and senior colleagues in the Janata Parivar have, in the past, used the choicest invectives against Sonia, Rahul and the Congress. It is indeed a paradox that on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Emergency on June 25, 1975, the very same detainees of despotism are extending their hands of friendship to those whose party and family inflicted vicious wounds on individual liberty. Next week, leaders of all the factions of the Janata Parivar and Left parties are likely to conspire and confabulate on seat-sharing for the Assembly polls. They are flirting with each other, not for the purpose of providing an alternative model of good governance but with the only objective to put a brake on the Modi juggernaut in Bihar.

History repeats itself. In political history, new players who adopt the practices and slogans of the past are incarnated when power and populism intersect. Forty years ago, forces from the extreme Right to the extreme Left got together with the regional parties and coined the slogan ‘Indira Hatao, Desh Bachao (defeat Indira, save the nation)’. None of the Opposition stalwarts could tolerate the arrogance and the authoritarian style of PM Indira Gandhi. In the era she straddled, she was the last word in politics and governance. The Socialist parties and BJP (then known as Jan Sangh) were in her cross hairs. When they failed to mobilise enough public opinion against her, it was left to the somewhat somnolent social samaritan Jayaprakash Narayan from Bihar to wake up and lead the anti-Indira movement, which eventually led to the imposition of the Emergency, the merger of many parties causing the birth of the Janata Party, and the subsequent defeat of the Congress and Indira Gandhi herself in 1977. Since the new formation was not based on any definite ideology, it collapsed like ninepins soon after their target of removing Indira Gandhi from power was achieved.

A similar political adventurism is underway, but the playfield this time is Bihar, not India. In the eyes of his neo-secular enemies, Modi has replaced Indira. All the non-NDA parties have coalesced and conjured up the slogan: Modi Harao, Secularism Bachao (defeat Modi and save secularism). Instead of the BJP, it is PM Modi who poses a threat to their political future. They have convinced themselves that by trouncing the BJP in Bihar, they would be able to corrode Modimagic and erode his authority and confidence. The heroes of the Emergency—the BJP and Socialists—are now at war in Bihar. It is incongruous that villains of the Emergency, too, can be found in both camps. According to the latest indications, over a dozen diminutive political parties, including the Left, are likely to forge an alliance and put up common candidates against the BJP and its allies. While both factions are targeting fringe leaders like former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi and Pappu Yadav to maximise the caste matrix, anti-Modi forces have decided to set their sights on the PM. They feel the BJP is almost in a similar position as the Congress was under Indira Gandhi—if the tricolour party was a zero without Indira, the BJP without Modi is a high-powered SUV without an engine.

Like Gujarat was Modi’s laboratory to test and hone his administrative and political skills, his opponents have now converted Bihar into a high-tech tab to invent an antidote to Modi’s invincibility. Both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav aren’t only engaged in social reengineering. They want to paint Modi as the villain of social harmony and a crusader championing crony capitalism. Lalu has gone to the extent of declaring he wouldn’t mind ingesting poison if it can defeat Modi in Bihar. According to the election strategy of the united Janata factions, they are going to beat the war drums, damning the opportunistic alliances made by the BJP in Kashmir and with Ram Vilas Paswan in Bihar. Additionally, the battle for the state is turning out to be a doppelgänger of the Delhi scenario. The Delhi Assembly contest was Kejriwal vs Modi, since no other BJP leader, including the parachute paragon Kiran Bedi, could come within miles of Kejriwal’s magnetism. In Patna too, it is going to be Modi vs Nitish Kumar. Taking advantage of the absence of any powerful local BJP leader, the anti-Modi phalanx deliberately chose Nitish as their gladiator to take on the BJP behemoth. Nitish may not have, of late, a credible track record of good governance like Modi, but he is considered to be the most powerful leader in Bihar for the moment. Moreover, all the parties backing him represent over 55 per cent of the total votes. In 2010, the BJP-JD(U) combine fought the Assembly elections together and won 206 seats out of a total of 243 and polled over 39 per cent of the votes. Now the JD(U), which had secured 22.58 per cent votes then, has decided to fight the BJP in cahoots with the Congress, the Left and RJD. Their total vote share was around 55 per cent in 2010. Even in the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the combined vote percentage of the anti-BJP parties was over 47 as against around 37 per cent garnered by the NDA. Bihar is not going to be a cakewalk for the BJP, since it has rarely fought an Assembly election without a powerful regional ally in the past 30 years. Modi could break caste and class barriers with his sheer appeal and charisma in the Lok Sabha polls. The voters of Bihar felt they had no alternative other than him to be the best man to rule from Delhi. With the BJP performing at below-expectation levels at the Centre, Modi’s detractors are projecting Nitish as the local alternative who can govern Bihar better than any state BJP leader who functions through remote control from Delhi.

The death of ideologies in Bihar has revived the unfinished battle for supremacy between the national icon Modi and the regional warrior Nitish Kumar. The outcome of the war in Pataliputra will lay the future contours of the road to Indraprastha.

Prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

UNLESS the BJP calls ...... Power & Politics/The Sunday Standard/April 21, 2013

Unless the BJP calls Nitish’s bluff, it is going to be reduced to just another party

Napoleon Bonaparte famously and provocatively said, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” Our leaders have improved upon Napoleon. Indian political leaders have become dealers in hype. They hawk their virtues as if they are the best of rulers. They market themselves as the maker of a modern society. Even those who control just a tiny district market use megaphones to create an impression, as if they have acquired pan-Indian market and acceptability. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is doing exactly that. His is not selling his state to the rest of the country as a model of good governance, he is merely telling the country what is not good for him or India. For him, it is Narendra Modi, and not the UPA, that poses a bigger threat to communal harmony. Without holding any office in his party, it is Nitish who is the extra-constitutional centre of power in the Janata Dal (United), simply because he is the chief minister. His state remains without proper electricity and water supply. Bihar’s educational system has collapsed. Caste conflicts are on the rise. Yet, his cacophonics dictate political discourse in the National Democratic Alliance.

The Nitish-Modi war reflects the demolition of the institutional framework to deal with contradictions. In the fight between two individuals, their parties have become just tools. Nitish has acquired a larger-than-life stature because the BJP leadership has outsourced the dialogue between the Bihar chief minister to either individuals with strong corporate connections or those who don’t want the Gujarat chief minister to be the rallying point for the NDA’s fight against the UPA.

Moreover, the feud symbolises yet another malaise inflicting India’s political culture. As national parties lose their national character, a group of individuals define the political narrative. Both the BJP and Congress are losing allies because they have failed to evolve a mechanism that deals with issues and not a few individuals like Nitish, who are now becoming their most potent destabilising factors.

An analysis of Nitish’s political conduct during the last few weeks reveals an interesting trend. He has been softer on the Congress and the Prime Minister, and harder on the BJP and Narendra Modi. He runs a coalition with the BJP in his own state. On various social parameters, the Bihar government has done much better than even Gujarat. Interestingly, the performance of all Bihar’s BJP ministers is much better than than that of those belonging to the JD(U). Yet, Nitish has been grabbing all the credit. He has been talking about coalition dharma, which he has been himself violating with impunity by attacking Modi on every possible platform. The metamorphosis of a former diehard socialist to a populist parvenu happened more due to the drive of individual ambition and not any ideological idealism.

Political analysts feel Nitish has chosen to attack Modi as part of his strategy to grab the centre stage and divert attention from his plummeting popularity at home. Nitish was furious after a series of opinion polls showed that Modi was more popular than him in Bihar. One poll conducted by a local agency concluded that Modi’s individual popularity was more than the combined ratings of both Nitish and Rahul Gandhi with the former coming third. Over 70 per cent respondents wanted Modi to be the Prime Minister as against just 21 percent who preferred Nitish. Another poll predicted that even if Nitish joins the Congress-led alliance, the BJP would poll more votes than both the JD(U) and Congress combined.

Nitish has always prevented Modi from entering the state on one pretext or the other. He sharpened his attack on Modi soon after the Gujarat chief minister acquired wider acceptability within his own party and also in other parts of the country. Nitish was also encouraged by a powerful section of the BJP who don’t want Modi to become a formidable prime ministerial candidate. FoNIs (Friends of Nitish) in the BJP have been feeding the Bihar honcho with all the ammunition and ideological justification needed to stall Modi’s elevation. They ensured that the BJP talks to only Nitish and not the Janata Dal President Sharad Yadav for the resolution of crises. BJP leaders hosted dinners and lunches for Nitish Kumar, but forgot to invite leaders of their own party, including its president. Even in Bihar, the BJP is known as Nitish’s B-Team. He dictates the BJP’s ministers, and even the election of its state president. According to Bihar government sources, most BJP leaders have been compromised and Nitish has collected dossiers on each of them.

Even in his own party, there is resentment against Nitish over his inaccessibility and arrogance. Actually, he wasn’t the JD(U)’s first choice for the chief minister’s post. It was Uma  Bharti, the then BJP-in-charge of the state who unilaterally announced Nitish as the leader of the coalition without even taking other leaders into confidence. Nitish was elected the leader only later. Hardcore BJP workers are also annoyed with him for his soft attitude towards terror attacks. They claim he has never spoken against J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah for supporting extremist elements. Nitish has been silent over the failure of the Congress government to mete out justice to the perpetrators of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Strangely, BJP leaders swear by its structured and institutional system, but most of its leaders are ones who weaken and sabotage the party to gain personal allies and benefits. Unless the BJP calls Nitish’s bluff, it is going to be reduced to just another party, which will be led by outsiders and not by its forgotten and ideologically committed insiders.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Power & Politics / The Sunday Standard/ August 19, 2012

Time for Nitish to realise the hidden costs of his Modi obsession

When leaders fight for a post and not for performance, it signals the end of their commitment to the public cause. If individuals consider themselves bigger than the institutions and ideology they serve, it results in democratic anarchy. The public confrontation between Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has nothing to do with the ideological DNA of either as is being made out. Surprisingly, Nitish has chosen the issue of the future prime minister to position himself as an alternative for the country’s top executive post. He has conveniently forgotten that there is no vacancy at the moment. He is not concerned with the issues that will determine the colour of the next government. But he doesn’t mind reminding his big ally, the BJP, to declare its prime ministerial candidate now or perish. He has also forgotten that Modi has to establish his popular acceptability for the job first by winning the Gujarat Assembly elections this year. Even Nitish’s party colleagues are baffled by his obsession with the NDA’s prime ministerial candidate. Instead of attacking the UPA for its failure to contain graft in public life, revive the economy and control inflation, Nitish has been exposing the fissures within the NDA. On the other hand, the Gujarat chief minister does not miss any opportunity to berate the Congress and the UPA allies on both national and international issues.

The Nitish-Modi feud symbolises the hidden shadow-boxing going on both in the BJP and the Congress party. The truth is that a large section of the leadership of both the national parties doesn’t want either Modi or Nitish becoming a strong contender for the next prime minister. But they are definitely interested in finishing off both before they become too big a factor in the race. The top leaders of both parties are feeling insecure about the rise of regional satraps with prime ministerial potential and aspirations. They think that it is the monopoly of only Central leaders who have never won an election or led their party to victory in any state. Mass leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Modi and Nitish make them look like political pygmies. Individually, any of them can collect more crowds than all the Central leaders put together. They have been dictating the national agenda and governance for the past few years. However, none have been associated with any national decision-making process which is dominated by national leaders without a state following. Yet they are able to reverse the decisions taken by their national leadership. Stung by the growing clout of the regional leaders, a section of the Congress and the BJP leadership has chosen to adopt the well-tested policy of ‘Divide and Rule.’ Friends of Nitish in the BJP have been encouraging him to take on Modi and erode his acceptability, even in his own party. This suits the Congress as well, which has provided Bihar excessive financial help so that he keeps on making Modi a major irritant in keeping the NDA intact. Even while the BJP is still to take a final call on Modi, it is, inexplicably, Nitish who is raising the issue repeatedly at every forum.

However, both Modi and Nitish have nothing in common except the arrogance of authority. Nitish muzzles any media that opposes him. Modi doesn’t tolerate dissenting leaders. The uncrowned Monarch of Gujarat lacks the magnanimity to regret his government’s abysmal failure to contain the post-Godhra riots. Nitish is the new chatterati darling whose soft target is Modi. Nitish is seeking endorsement from India Inc. On the other hand, Corporate India is desperately seeking Modi for a plot of land in Gujarat. They visit Gujarat more often than Bihar. Bihar may have recorded the highest GDP growth because of agricultural plenty, but it has failed to attract either new investment or even kickstart any of its own schemes aimed at improving infrastructure.

Leadership can’t be bought or acquired by running down other leaders. It follows one’s work and words. Unfortunately, Nitish neither has any work to show nor any words of wisdom for others to follow him. His work has been confined to the geographical boundaries of Bihar, which have been defined by his caste and community politics. He doesn’t depend on merely touting his achievements as the chief minister, but by making Modi look like a monster. For the past few weeks, Nitish has not got any opportunity to display his pathological hatred for Modi who, in turn, hasn’t even bothered to acknowledge Nitish’s uncharitable barbs. Undoubtedly, Modi has to explain his government’s failure to contain the worst-ever communal carnage in 2002, but his track record of putting Gujarat back on the development path hasn’t been questioned even by his worst adversaries. By making Modi his political rival, Nitish has diluted his anti-Congress genes. If the NDA fails to create a truce between the warring titans, it will be the Congress that will be laughing all the way to the bank in 2014.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com; Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

The Arrogance of a few leaders threatens the Democracy/The Sunday Standard/ April 15, 2012

The Arrogance of a few leaders threatens the Democracy of All

Arrogance and intolerance only bring agony, sooner or later. But new age political leaders see only virtue in hubris. Perhaps they learnt it from superstar Shah Rukh Khan who says, when he feels like being arrogant, he visits America. But he ends up in unjustified custody instead, and lands on Page 1 and primetime for behaving like a Khan. Mamata Banerjee is no different. She acquired front page space legitimately, thanks to her historic victory over the Left Front in West Bengal. Perhaps, it may be her last achievement as a political leader. For the past few months, Didi has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Her government arrests and slaps a criminal case against an academic for lampooning her. Earlier, she ordered that no public library or school in West Bengal can buy English newspapers. If that wasn’t enough, she went to the extent of conducting a roll call during a meeting of top industrialists and chief executives of many multinational corporations. Instead of laying the roadmap for the state’s future development and marketing West Bengal as one of the most profitable industrial destinations for investment, like a school headmistress, Mamata asked each one of them: “Will you invest in my state or not? Please tell me. Please tell me.” The corporate leaders, not used to such grilling and earthy persuasion, went back to their homes and offices with the resolve never to return to Kolkata for such scolding sessions.

Mamata’s unflinching commitment to the poor is beyond doubt. Even after becoming the chief minister, she continues to travel in an ordinary car without the massive paraphernalia that is the symbol of power for our politicians. She still travels by economy class. But her moody methods reflect her dictatorial tendencies while her mundane methods don’t reflect her maverick madness. Didi is out to prove that she has now got the authority to rule over those who had dismissed her as just another girl from the slums, who lacks the degree and pedigree the ruler of West Bengal should possess. None of the elitist coconuts (brown from outside but white inside) could ever imagine that one day they would have to sit meekly before Mamata and listen to her lessons on governance and social conduct. It’s a tragedy that political leaders are now taking democratic mandate as an unconditional licence to silence their critics and promote cronyism in their political outfits. They expect others to either fall in line or fall by the wayside. They will use any pretence in the dirty tricks department to destroy, defame and derail those who question their wily wisdom and baneful brilliance.

Mamata is not the only one. The membership of the Club of Arrogant Leaders is expanding very fast. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Jammu and Kashmir’s Omar Abdullah, Gujarat’s Narendra Modi, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati as well as many current leaders of national parties now expect their partyworkers and the ‘aam aadmi’ to prostrate before them. Nitish’s critics claim that he goes so ballistic on any criticism that he even withdraws advertisements from newspapers and refuses plum posts to those who don’t seemingly share his leadership acumen and qualities. Since most of these leaders have either electorally defeated national parties or have captured power through devious methods, they are the ones who show a stronger level of intolerance. No doubt, some of them are personally clean. But they kill internal democracy and eliminate those who they feel can pose a threat to their leadership in the future. There are over half a dozen Union ministers who think they were born to rule, and abhor any challenge from their colleagues. Their only qualification seems to be that they were born in the right family, went to the right schools and chose the right techniques to reach the top. A large majority of top functionaries of the national parties are not in a position to win their own seats, leave alone bringing their party into power. Unlike the chief ministers, these luminaries get their power and arrogance from the financial clout they have acquired after formally joining politics. However, there are exceptions like Sheila Dikshit, Naveen Patnaik, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Akhilesh Yadav who don’t carry their official crown on their sleeves.

The rise and rise of our egoistic leaders is dangerous for the democratic functioning of both political parties and the government. The nation still remembers leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Govind Ballabh Pant, K Kamraj, Indira Gandhi, EMS Namboodiripad and Atal Bihari Vajpayee who were symbols of substance and tolerance. Now they have been replaced by the Mamatas, Nitish Kumars, Mayawatis and Omar Abdullahs for whom political power is an instrument of authority and autocratic conduct, and not of public service.

prabhuchawla@newindianexpress.com Follow me on Twitter @PrabhuChawla

Khas Mulakat /Aajtak, October 18, 2010

'हम विकास की राह पर चलते रहेंगे'

बिहार के मुख्यमंत्री नीतीश कुमार खास मुलाकात में बताया कि वो विकास के मुद्दे पर चुनाव लड़ रहे हैं और बिहार में अब विपक्षी पार्टी भी विकास की बात करने लगी है यही उनकी (नीतीश की) सबसे बड़ी जीत है.

भाग 1 भाग 2 भाग 3 भाग 4 भाग 5

Snippets/ Mail Today, April 19, 2010

Now tatkal clearance for Games

IN THE old days when a telephone was a luxury and owning one involved a waiting period that often took years, you could opt for a Tatkal scheme and acquire a connection. Ditto for the railways where if you had to travel and didn’t have a reservation, you could opt for a ticket under the tatkal scheme. But ever heard of a tatkal clearance for the cause of sport? With the 19th Commonwealth Games now less than 200 days away, among the many things that cause headaches to cabinet secretary K. M. Chandrasekhar is the woeful shortage of accommodation for the thousands of visitors who are expected to visit the Capital for the 11- day event.

Delhi, rising India’s shining Capital, has fewer hotel rooms than many small cities in the US or Europe. The government came up with a scheme to bridge this shortage by offering fully furnished DDA flats at reasonable rates for visitors. Plans were afoot to offer about 2,700 such flats, but there were hitches. Green activists planned to petition the environment ministry against clearance for the flats. In Jairam Ramesh, they saw a friend who would sympathise with their cause and give the government a thumbs down.

Last week, the matter came up for discussion during a meeting of the standing committee of the CWG, chaired by the cabinet secretary. Faced with several imponderables, Chandrasekhar called Ramesh who promised to get back later in the day. The minister promptly reviewed the situation with the mandarins of his ministry and within hours called back the CabSec to assure him that clearance for the project had been okayed and the necessary notifications would soon be issued. Like everyone else, Chandrasekhar knows that Ramesh is a very efficient minister, but the minister’s lightning reflexes have now prompted the CabSec to rechristen Ramesh “ the Tatkal Minister”.

Nitish could mar prospects of BJP, Cong in Bihar

NITISH Kumar may have failed to get special status for his state from the Planning Commission, but during his tenure, the socialistturned- free- marketer chief minister has himself acquired a special political status in the state that goes to polls in a few months’ time. In the once lawless state, now there is more than a semblance of law and order. Yet, Nitish’s political arrogance and highly individualistic rule has not only created mayhem in his own party, the JD( U), but has paralysed the BJP, its ally.

On the eve of elections, the divide between the two is widening by the day and there is no clear agenda or chain of command to steer the NDA. While Nitish cocks a snook at his “ high command” in Delhi, the local BJP appears to be a house of cards which could collapse any moment. Five months after his appointment, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari has not chosen a state party president nor named a central leader to oversee the party’s election strategy. This is crucial, because the Bihar polls will be the first after Gadkari’s elevation and therefore could make or mar his own career.

The state BJP is being managed and manipulated by Friends Of Nitish Kumar ( FONK) based in Delhi and Patna. The Congress seems to be in a deeper crisis as state chief Anil Sharma is unable to carry the cadres with him. Jagdish Tytler, the AICC’s point man for Bihar, is spending sleepless nights in the heat and dust of the backward state, but his efforts may come to nought because the caste and community- ridden party consists of many invisible Nitish admirers.

Rahul Gandhi's resolve to revive the party in the state is unlikely to yield dividends unless he takes direct command. The only beneficiaries of the confusion are the regional satraps such as Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. The fate of the two national parties will depend on how quickly their central leadership rids their respective parties of the virus called FONK.

THE CURRENT BJP leadership may believe that there is no matter of national importance more pressing than the shenanigans of Lalit Modi and Shashi Tharoor, but the parent RSS obviously thinks otherwise. A resolution passed by the Akhil Bharatiya Prathinidhi Sabha of the RSS, which met last fortnight, was as much an indictment of the Centre and the state government in Jammu & Kashmir for the drift in the state as of the BJP leaders for nitpicking over trivial issues. The resolution was passed just a few days before Manmohan Singh left for the United States where he had a scheduled meeting with his Pak counterpart.

In the past, before any such meeting, the BJP president or the Leader of the Opposition called on the Prime Minister to convey the Opposition’s mood on important bilateral issues. No such meeting was sought this time, which the RSS feels, is an indication that the BJP had got its priorities all wrong. The new party president who hasn’t allocated work responsibilities to his office bearers despite being at the helm for nearly six months now, is busy hiring second grade management doctors to cure the party’s ills. Nitin Gadkari came to office promising to take the BJP back to its roots. So far, he has nothing to show and time may not be on his side for long.

Power & Politics / Mail Today, September 21, 2009

THE FUTURE of chief ministers is seldom put on the line by the results of byeelections. Too much should not be read into these which, while having a bearing on the future of individual candidates, are no barometer on the rise or fall in the popularity of a leader or a government. Even voters, knowing their votes will not change or sustain a government, are more likely to register protest votes.

The past fortnight has seen by- polls held in 44 assembly constituencies across eight states. The winners will no doubt go overbroad with visions of revival while the losers are likely to seek solace in the dictum “ you win some you lose some”. But the results of the bye- elections have caused palpitations because the people have conveyed the message that they are monitoring their leaders not only for their performance but also their conduct.

For chief ministers in five states, the bye polls were a litmus test. I will leave aside West Bengal where the CPI( M) is so demoralised it can’t even find candidates against Mamata; Tamil Nadu, where the AIADMK is conspicuous by its absence and Uttar Pradesh where, for the moment at least, it appears Mayawati ka jawab nahin ( is unbeatable). But there were mixed signals for Nitish Kumar ( Bihar), Narendra Modi ( Gujarat), Sheila Dikshit ( Delhi), BS Yeddyurappa ( Karnataka) and Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank ( Uttarakhand).

After a decade and half of misrule of the Lalu- Rabri combine, Nitish came like a breath of fresh air but it is clear from the scale of the defeat — the NDA won just 5 of the 18 seats as against 12 it held — that the voters in Bihar weren’t taken in by the state government PR department’s advertisements portraying him as a man of action who guaranteed satisfaction. While Nitish must be lauded for improving the law and order situation in that lawless state, the arrogance and the aura of invincibility that he has built around himself has been punctured.

The back to back victories that voters gave him in two assembly and parliamentary elections were meant to better their lives; instead he saw himself as a power broker at the centre, even a potential prime minister. The reality check from the voters, who also gave the disgraced Lalu- Paswan combine nine of the 18 seats, is also proof that the real alternative to the JD( U) in Bihar is not the Congress but the RJD- LJP team.

In Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, the only third term Congress chief minister, got a rude shock as the party lost both by- elections, just four months after the Congress won 66 of the 70 assembly segments and all seven seats in the Lok Sabha polls. The denizens of the capital would agree that Delhi is a much better place to live in now than ten years ago, but three back to back wins have obviously Nitish Kumar induced a sense of complacency and over- confidence in Sheilaji who failed to see that the people had alternative choices. Narendra Modi is lucky that the Congress chooses to attack not his performance but his image.

Modi relishes nothing better. So he engaged the Congress once again on its terms and emerged triumphant. In the Lok Sabha elections, he had barely managed to hang on to his 2004 tally and the man who was seen as a potential prime minister was written off as nothing more than a regional leader. It’s quite clear that Modi knows the Gujarat voters better than his own party bosses in Delhi and the men and women who sit at 24 Akbar Road. The unending and personal attacks on Modi, the person, as against Modi the chief minister, saw Gujaratis rally around him and he won five of the seven seats.

The Congress will have to revise its strategy before it takes on Modi next. Uttarakhand’s Nishank was brought in as chief minister after the BJP lost all Lok Sabha seats in the state, so the sole by- election was a crucial test for him. And he has brought credit to his party and done well enough to ensure that he doesn’t fall prey to machinations at 11 Ashoka Road. The surprise package of course has been Karnataka’s Yeddyurappa. Remember, his first tenure lasted less than 24 hours only because he found nothing wrong in supping with the devil to grab power.

In winning four of the five by elections ( three wrested from Congress), he not only learnt the lesson that there are no short cuts to power, he has also ensured that the Gowdas will soon become an extinct political species, that the Congress has a steep uphill climb next time and that the BJP in the state is synonymous with him. The mixed signals have sent varied messages to our leaders. It is up to them to learn their lessons.

Power & Politics / Mail Today, April 13, 2009

WE DON’T need a pollster to tell us that Narendra Modi is the most sought after leader on the campaign circuit. A pile of requests from the BJP and NDA candidates from Kashmir to Kerala and Kolkata to Kolhapur lie in the Gujarat chief minister’s residence and if he were to accept all of them, he would be addressing close to 500 rallies before the grueling campaign is through. But he has chosen to address only about 200 rallies, covering most of the big states.

Bihar, where a JD( U)- BJP coalition is in power, won’t be among them. Because Nitish Kumar doesn’t want him there. There could be two reasons for this: one, the affable but uninspiring Bihar chief minister may genuinely have apprehensions of being dwarfed by the charismatic Modi; equally plausible, he may want to insulate himself from all saffron affiliations in the hope of garnering some of the minority votes.

His advisers in the party, as also close friends in the BJP, have told him to keep equidistance from both the Congress and the BJP just to make sure he is seen as a shining 24- carat secularist. That’s why he publicly stated last week that he will not share the dais with the BJP’s most effective vote catcher. Instead, he is quietly lobbying with his friends in the BJP’s central office to invite him to campaign for its candidates.

Needless to say, in the event of these candidates winning, Nitish would want to hog all the credit. So keen is the man to sport his secular credentials on his sleeve that he was said to be reluctant to share the dais even with L. K. Advani, though last Friday, he finally relented and was seen on stage with the BJP’s prime minister- in- waiting.

Nitish is actually having his cake and eating it too. In public, he shuns the BJP, but in private drops by at the home of some of its second rung leaders for a meal while in Delhi. Some of the more hardcore Hindutva elements have told me in recent times that Nitish is as ungrateful and double- faced as one can get. In the immediate aftermath of Godhra, when Modi was the man that every secularist loved to hate, Nitish, as the- then railway minister, had shared the dais with Modi many times on his visits to Gujarat. As late as last August, after the Kosi floods submerged vast parts of Bihar, Modi was the first to respond to Nitish’s appeal for help.

He released Rs 10 crores from the Gujarat CM’s relief fund, sent 108 ambulances and asked his senior officials to camp in the affected areas and oversee the relief and rehabilitation opera- tions. Then, Nitish had publicly expressed gratitude for Modi’s humanitarian gestures. The grapevine has it that in this season of a prime ministerial bid that’s open to all, Nitish fancies his chances as much as the rustic Lalu Yadav or the cunning Ram Vilas Paswan. And his BJP friends have even assured him support in case the saffronites don’t become the single largest party.

We will know in just over a month if Nitish’s keep- Modi- out strategy yields the expected dividends. If it doesn’t happen, Nitish will live to regret for long. As will Naveen Patnaik in Orissa where, as I write this, Modi is said to be working his magic.

Snippets/ Mail Today, March 23, 2009

SHASHI Tharoor and VK Krishna Menon have more in common than the fact that they are both Malayalis. Tharoor worked at the UN for 28 years. Menon, High Commissioner to London and Defence Minister during the Nehru years, had a UN connection: he led the Indian delegation there for 10 years and his 1957 speech during a debate on Kashmir is still recorded as the longest ever — 7 hours and 48 minutes.

Both are also parliamentary paratroopers with minor differences. Menon was a charismatic “ outsider” when he contested the 1971 Lok Sabha elections from Trivandrum as an independent after the Congress denied him a ticket. The voters of the cosmopolitan Kerala capital gave him an overwhelming thumbs up. Tharoor has now got the Congress ticket over the claims of several local aspirants who view him as an “ outsider”. His boyish good looks and clipped Malayalam accent will win him many “ ooohs and aaahs”. Menon had neither but got the votes.

BEWARE OF THE ENEMY WITHIN

AFTER Naveen Patnaik bolted from the NDA, BJP leaders are increasingly coming around to the view that there is another resident Trojan Horse in the alliance in the guise of the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The JD( U) leader has very cordial relations with individuals in the BJP but politically, Nitish is acting like a butcher who is slicing up the BJP piece by piece. All this suggests that Nitish, perceived to be an avowed NDA ally, would rather wait for the election results to be out so that he can plot his future moves.

Strangely for an alliance leader, he tried to influence the selection of his coalition partner’s candidates in a few constituencies. Now that these attempts have come a cropper, he is on a maniacal mission to demolish the BJP- friendly leaders in his own party. George Fernandes fought and won the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, held in the backdrop of the Emergency, from jail, but is now a victim of Nitish’s machinations. He has been denied a ticket on the grounds of ill health, with a promise that he will be sent to the Rajya Sabha, though no vacancy arises there at least for another year.
Another NDA votary who has fallen casualty is Digvijay Singh, the former Union minister of state for external affairs, though in his case, it wasn’t advancing age but caste animosity — Digvijay’s Thakur lineage as against Nitish’s MBC. Unlike Nitish who prefers to keep all doors open, Digvijay has been a staunch NDA supporter and from the outset been against everything that has to do with the Left parties. Is it any wonder then that alliance leaders suspect that while Nitish is physically with the NDA, he is waiting till elections to find out where his heart lies.

EVER since Jawaharlal Nehru ushered Indira into politics, the Gandhi family has been accused of trying to foist democratic monarchy on the country. Indira, in turn brought, first Sanjay and later Rajiv into politics. The baton has since passed on and today, it’s the fourth generation that’s in control. If the charges of dynastic ambitions sound less shrill now, it is because the Gandhis no longer have a monopoly over it. These elections will see two more political sons take the electoral plunge.

In Andhra, Chief Minister YS Rajashekhara Reddy’s son Jaganmohan, a businessman with a somewhat controversial background, is contesting on a Congress ticket. In Karnataka, BS Yedyurappa has quietly nudged his son Vijendra in, bypassing the claims of more senior local BJP leaders. The rate at which scions are being ushered in, the day is not far off when India becomes a union of “ princely” states. Much of North India is already that. Jammu & Kashmir has Omar Abdullah, a third generation CM. In Himachal, PK Dhumal’s likely successor will be son Anurag Thakur.

In Punjab, succession is now a mere formality with Prakash Singh Badal and son Sukhbir sharing the CM- Deputy CM posts while in Haryana, chief minister BS Hooda is keeping the seat warm for Deepender. In Delhi, Sandeep Dikshit may not be mom’s immediate successor, but I have no doubt one day he will be so, as will Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, who will take over from Mulayam.

Though not by design, a second generation CM is now in office in Mumbai. To the South, barring the Left parties, in Kerala dynastic succession plans are in place in every party, while in Tamil Nadu, for every Karunanidhi, there is a Stalin, for every Ramadoss, an Anbumani. This is why we must celebrate the likes of Jayalalithaa and Mayawati. Autocrats that they are, they leave behind no offspring to carry on the tyranny.

The dimming star light

IN POLITICS, as in advertising, nothing works like a star endorsement. In the past, politicians’ eagerness to welcome stars into their fold was matched by the zeal of the latter to take the leap into the world of politics, wicked as it is. That enthusiasm seems to be on the wane. Stars, from the tinsel and sporting world, seem reluctant to take the plunge. Sanjay Dutt and Mohammed Azharuddin are exceptions.

In the case of Sanjay, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Lucknow, it was a matter of scoring brownie points over the Congress with which his late father was and sisters are associated. Having embraced Azharuddin, the Congress can’t seem to find a suitable seat for him, which is not surprising considering that he is accused of selling out the country’s cricket matches. Dharmendra was so bored in his first term, he rarely turned up and has said “ no” to a second term. So have many others. The BJP gave a choice of South Delhi and Lucknow seats to Hema Malini who rejected both. Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Kapil Dev and Anil Kapoor were all approached by one party or the other and each time, the reply was: thanks, but no thanks. Somewhere in the North East, a certain Suresh Oberoi is contesting and voters may know him as the father of Vivek Oberoi, who they will recognise as a one time lover of Aishwariya Rai. But one star who was game for a fight hasn’t been given a ticket. Poor Smriti Irani.