Editorial : The Undoing of the Mahagathbandhan Mahi Pal Singh On 19 August 2017 the Janata Dal United are facing corruption charges. In fact, K.C. (JDU) faction led by Nitish Kumar, the Tyagi, the General Secretary of the JD(U) President of the party and also the Chief declared Laloo the “Badshah (King) of Minister of Bihar decided to become part of corruption”. .Nitish Kumar, a shrewd politician the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led as he is, understands well that the Congress by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). The led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) decision to return to the NDA came a little after Government lost the 2014 parliamentary four years when Nitish Kumar had driven the election because the Congress had JD(U) to leave the alliance on 16 June 2013 unprecedented charges of corruption against when Narendra Modi was chosen as its prime its ministers. As a result the BJP came to ministerial candidate in the 2014 general power with merely 31% votes only because it election. Earlier he had resigned as the Chief batted against the corruption of the Congress Minister because Laloo Prasad Yadav had and made it the main agenda of its campaign stubbornly rejected his demand of Tejaswi when Narendra Modi declared ‘Na Khaunga, Yadav, the son of Mr. Yadav, to resign as the Na Khane Doonga’ (I shall neither eat nor let Deputy Chief Minister in the wake of others eat), ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas’ being corruption charges against him. Nitish Kumar the other. Nitish Kumar understands well that had made up his mind to part ways with the anybody who is perceived to be corrupt or to Mahagathbandhan or the grand alliance stand with the corrupt cannot win popular vote comprising of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and hope to form a government. led by Laloo Prasad Yadav and the Congress In view of the fact that after parting with only to form a government in the state again the RJD with 80 MLAs at its command, Nitish on 27 July 2017 with the support of the BJP. Kumar could not have continued as the Chief Nitish Kumar’s decision to part with the RJD Minister of Bihar, in his wisdom he decided to led by Laloo Prasad Yadav, and consequently go with the BJP whose support combined with of the Congress as part of the 71 MLAs of his own party could keep him in Mahagathbandhan also, as the latter does not power. And he did so in a well planned manner possess enough numbers to make it vital for by talking to the BJP bosses behind the scene him to bank on its support to continue as the in advance before taking the decision to resign. Chief Minister, cannot be questioned morally Politics is essentially a game of power and to because he had been claiming to have zero come to power or to retain it is the sole guiding tolerance against corruption whereas the whole force behind every individual and every political family of Laloo Prasad Yadav, including his wife party, and to achieve that end, they can go to Rabri Devi, his son Tejaswi Yadav, his elder any extent. Political expediency and son Taj Pratap Yadav, his daughter Misa shrewdness apart, ethically what Nitish Kumar Bharati and her husband Shailesh Kumar – all did by aligning with the BJP was not appropriate THE RADICAL HUMANIST 3 because the reason for his breaking with the party in which case it will certainly like to have BJP has not changed – Narendra Modi, its own candidate as the Chief Minister and against whose projection as the candidate for Nitish Kumar may stand nowhere. Prime Ministership he had broken with the BJP, Only time will tell whether he has made a is the Prime Minister now. Secondly, he cannot politically correct move and his party will gain guarantee that the ministers from the BJP, or anything or it proves to be the greatest blunder for that matter of his own party, will not indulge of his life. His conviction against corruption in corruption in the new government. would have been proved better and his moral It is also true that to remain with the known stature would have risen to great heights had to be corrupt politicians only to continue in he resigned and gone for a mid-term poll alone power could not be justified on any account. leaving it to the people to decide what they But one must not forget that Laloo Prasad wanted, and not aligned with the BJP to remain Yadav had already been convicted in the in power, against whom he had won as a part fodder scam by the court when the of the Mahagathbandhan. Even if he had lost Mahagathbandhan was forged and with the the election, his stature would have been higher support of the same Laloo Prasad Yadav Nitish than that of any other leader in the country had become the Chief Minister. If it is morally today. In the last few years he had emerged unsound to continue with Laloo Prasad now, it as a development man with a clean image was equally so when he assumed Chief among the galaxy of corrupt leaders belonging Ministership of Bihar with his support, that too to the non-BJP and non-Congress secular when his own party had only 71 seats as parties. He would have been the obvious, against the 80 held by the RJD. Therefore, any credible and only choice as the opposition’s moral stance taken by Nitish Kumar to part candidate for future Prime Ministership as he with Laloo Prasad Yadav now on the pretext was already in the reckoning for that honour of corruption seems only an eye-wash. which position he has lost forever now, besides For the time being Nitish Kumar has ensured losing on moral grounds. In the process he has that he continues as the Chief Minister of given a big jolt to the chances of emergence Bihar. With Laloo Prasad Yadav’s RJD likely of a credible secular front to dislodge the to be decimated in the next election because communal BJP from power in the 2019 of his whole family being charged of corruption parliamentary elections. Perceptions matter in and the Congress too being force-led by Rahul politics in the long run and now the perception Gandhi not likely to do any better in Bihar, he about him is that of a power hungry politician may even continue to be the Chief Minister – no different from other politicians. He had after the next election. It is also possible that got a chance to prove himself to be different his own party may not do well in the election from others which he has lost for now, and and the BJP may emerge as the biggest single perhaps forever. “Where a society has chosen to accept democracy as its credal faith, it is elementary that the citizens ought to know what their government is doing.” Justice P N Bhagwati, former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India, (1981) 4 September 2017 Articles and Features: How unsafe are Muslims? IN a farewell message the outgoing RSS chief Mohan vice-president, Hamid Ansari, has said that the Bhagwat has Muslims do not feel safe in the country. Instead reportedly endorsed of introspecting on what he said, the RSS and the view that since the BJP have denounced him. Some have gone Ansari did not feel to the extent of saying that he could migrate to happy in India he a country where he would feel safe. could go elsewhere. The unkindest cut came from Prime Minister As head of a Hindu Narendra Modi who said that Ansari could now organization, Kuldip Nayar pursue his agenda. A few others, occupying high Bhagwat’s remark positions, also made more or less a similar attains the representative character, remark. There was not an iota of examination unfortunately reducing the whole thing to the by the Hindu leaders and thus a great perennial debate of Hindus versus Muslims. opportunity to disarm the Muslims of their fear Since Anari’s remark is a public property and was lost. coming as it did from the country’s vice- True, the vice-president could have made president, it should be debated at all responsible the same remarks earlier and submitted his forums, including parliament. The government resignation while in office. But that would have at the centre has constituted in the past a created another kind of a crisis which the commission to find out how the Muslims felt. constitution experts would have found hard to Justice Rajindar Sachar, who led the sort out. That way the country would have been commission, said in his report that the Muslims thrown into a cauldron of doubt and suspicion. were treated worse than the dalits. And he found that West Bengal, after nearly three decades The majority community must try to find out of communist rule, had only a 2.5 percent why every Muslim leader raises reservation educated Muslims. Time is ripe to have another about his community’s welfare whenever he commission to find out if Justice Sachar’s report gets the opportunity, particularly on the eve of had made any difference. quitting office. The remark that Ansari could go to any country of his choice does not in any Unfortunately, similar remarks of regret have way meet the point he has raised. Ansari was been made by other Muslim leaders in the past. not saying whether he was safe or not personally.