Patna: Barely seven months after they came together, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his ally the, Bharatiya Janata Party, look caught in a confrontation once again.
The fresh cause of tension between the two parties is the alleged attempts by BJP leaders to stoke communal passions in the state resulting in the registering of a case against Arjit Shashwat, son of federal Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar Choubey, and seven other BJP leaders by the state administration.
While the state administration holds Arijit responsible for clashes in the communally-sensitive Bhagalpur district, the BJP has threatened to launch an agitation if the cases were not withdrawn within two days.
“The BJP leaders have been implicated in false cases,” BJP’s Bhagalpur district unit chief Rohit pandey told media Wednesday.
The minister’s son is accused of organising an unauthorised procession in Bhagalpur on Saturday. The procession, which passed through a 15-km route that included at least half-a-dozen Muslim-dominated localities, resulted in clashes that left many injured. Eventually, the state government had to rush central paramilitary forces and ban internet services to bring the situation under control.
That is not the only worry for Chief Minister Kumar who returned to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in July last year after breaking away from the erstwhile ruling Grand Alliance with whose support he had won the last 2015 Bihar state elections.
In the last two days, Kumar has expressed his annoyance over the way some top BJP leaders have been allegedly caught on camera trying to create communal tension. He issued a stern warning to the BJP in subtle way.
“I won’t tolerate attempts to disturb communal harmony at any cost. Just like my uncompromising stand on corruption, I won’t allow communalism to flare up. I can’t compromise with it no matter what the consequence,” Kumar told a function in Patna on Tuesday evening.
Barely a day earlier, Kumar had another piece of advice for the BJP when he came out in strong support of federal minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, suggesting the BJP to shed its “anti-Muslim image”. “As the BJP-led government is working with the agenda of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas (collective efforts, inclusive growth)’, it needs to do away with anti-minority perception. The early it sheds its anti-Muslim image, the better it will be for the NDA in 2019 elections,” Paswan had suggested the BJP while talking to the media on Sunday.
Kumar supported Paswan saying what he said was true. “He [Paswan] is not a small leader. I support what he said. He met me last night and we discussed many issues. We should respect his views,” Kumar said.
However, the BJP has reacted bitterly to the “unwarranted advice” coming from the Paswan-Kumar duo. “There is no need to change BJP’s perception. We don’t want any certificate from anyone,” state BJP youth wing chief Nitin Navin told the media today.
The main opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has asked the chief minister to act against the BJP leaders allegedly trying to fan up communal passions in the society. “Nitish Kumar should walk the talk and act against people like [Ashwini Kumar] Choubey, Giriraj [Singh] and Nityanand Rai who are trying to create communal rift in the society. He must not adopt double standards all the time,” tweeted Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav today.
According to Yadav, the BJP leaders made abortive bids to create communal tensions in Araria, Darbhanga and Bhagalpur after badly losing by-elections in Bihar despite all efforts.
