Patna: The newly formed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar, headed by chief minister Nitish Kumar, is going all out to woo the Muslim community by offering a number of sops. Kumar formed the government with the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after breaking 20-month-old relations with the Grand Alliance in a sudden turn of events on July 26.
Now, the chief minister has announced scholarships worth Rs10,000 (Dh575) to Muslim students who clear Fauquania (Matric) and Maulvi (Intermediate) examinations from Madarsa Board. So far, such facilities are available to students enrolled in only government schools.
The new government has also announced it will undertake the construction of madrasas and provision of basic facilities there, such as making arrangements for potable water, toilets and libraries. Most Madarsas are said to be in dilapidated conditions.
In another move, the state government has raised the amount of money being given to Muslim women divorced by their husbands. Now, female divorcees will be paid Rs25,000 instead of the Rs10,000, which they have been getting.
Although they have not expressed it in public, the Muslim community in Bihar is said to be angry at the way Kumar broke his alliance with the three-party Grand Alliance, which was given the mandate to rule, and then suddenly formed a new government with the BJP.
The chief minister’s biggest worry at this time is to keep his vote-bank of Muslims intact or he may end up getting fewer seats during the elections. Right now, he does not have his support in any particular caste groups and said to be mainly banking on his development agenda but his bizarre move to frequently change alliances has confused the general masses. The question being asked by the masses is that why did he break his alliance with the BJP in 2013 and then return. The chief minister, as such, has no credible answer.
The Janata Dal United (JD-U), which Kumar heads, had won only two seats of out of Bihar’s total 40 Lok Sabha seats in the last 2014 general elections when it contested the elections alone.
In the state elections, held in October-November 2015, it managed to put up a respectable show owing to its alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), headed by Lalu Prasad Yadav, yet the JD-U won less number of seats than the RJD. Both the RJD and the JD-U had contested 100 seats each but the JD-U bagged only 71 seats against 80 won by the RJD.
Muslims are believed to have strongly voted for the three-party Grand Alliance comprising the RJD, JD-U and the Congress party, in the last assembly elections held in 2015, where the party emerged victorious with 178 seats out of total 243.
The BJP-led NDA, on the other hand, was able to win only 58 seats despite an aggressive poll campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed as many as 27 rallies — said to be the maximum by any Indian Prime Minister in a state election.
Response to Kumar’s move to break his relationship with the Grand Alliance and join hands with the BJP is gaining acceptance by Muslims, according to some experts. According to them, the Bihar mandate was against “communalism” but Nitish Kumar gifted it to his old friend, the BJP. The move saw the BJP sitting in the opposition to suddenly capture power in Bihar.