In the latest edition of the CPI(M) mouthpiece People’s Democracy, the party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury has penned a scathing editorial on JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar’s desertion of the INDIA bloc to return to the NDA fold.
Calling the Bihar chief minister’s move a “betrayal” and a “somersault”, Yechury has also said Nitish Kumar a “courtier of the BJP” and an “opportunistic operator”. These are only some of the epithets he has used to describe Nitish, who ditched the Mahagathbandhan government in Bihar and teamed up with the BJP once again to become chief minister for the ninth time.
Titled ‘Betrayal in Bihar’, the Left mouthpiece said: “Bihar chief minister and JD(U) leader, Nitish Kumar, has somersaulted again. After leaving the BJP and forming a Mahagathbandhan government with the RJD in August 2022, Nitish has now defected back to the side of the BJP.”
It added: “In India’s parliamentary history, Nitish Kumar has created a notorious record of switching sides five times and being sworn in as chief minister nine times.”
Doubting the chief minister’s intentions when he was engaging with opposition leaders to put up a united front against the BJP, the CPI(M) said this latest U-turn has taken place in the most curious circumstances. It said since July last year, Nitish was “ostensibly” engaged in putting together an anti-BJP opposition grouping, and it was his initiative that led to the first opposition conclave in Patna in June 2023.
“…how is it that Nitish, the builder of opposition unity, becomes a courtier of the BJP within a span of six months?” it asked.
After breaking his alliance with the RJD and joining hands with the BJP, Nitish had said when he was part of the opposition front, he was “trying so hard” but “they did not do even one thing”. Kumar had said: “I was telling them to choose another name for the alliance, but they had already decided on it. I was trying so hard but they did not do even one thing. Even today, they have not decided which party will contest how many seats. Then I left them and returned to who I was with originally. Now, I will stay here forever and keep working for the people of Bihar.”
The Left mouthpiece makes a subtle indication of the JD(U) chief’s personal ambitions as one of the factors behind him ditching the INDIA bloc. It said: “One of the reasons cited by his close aides is that Nitish got fed up after the January 13 opposition meeting failed to make him the convener of the INDIA bloc – something he had been waiting for, for the past few months.”
Far from reading Nitish’s departure from the INDIA bloc as a loss to the opposition alliance, the CPI(M) called it “lucky” and “fortuitous”. “In hindsight, the INDIA grouping is lucky to have not made him the convener. If he had been made the sole convener of the bloc, imagine what would have been the effect, if he had then chosen to betray his partners and join hands with the BJP. So, it is fortuitous that Nitish Kumar was not given the opportunity to backstab the opposition while occupying the key position of convener,” he added.
Mincing no words, the Left mouthpiece called the JD(U) leader an “opportunistic operator”. “For, make no mistake”, it said, “Nitish Kumar, the opportunistic operator that he is, would have unified his convenership to strike a harder bargain with the BJP.”
The article then goes on to attack the BJP for being “equally opportunistic”. It said: “The BJP has an equal, if not more opportunistic record as far as encouraging defections and accepting those very leaders, who they condemned as corrupt and unprincipled, into their fold.”
Slamming the BJP, the CPI(M) said: “Those who do not succumb to the blandishments of the BJP will have the ED and CBI go after them. It is symbolic that soon after the swearing-in of the Nitish-BJP government, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav were summoned by the ED for interrogation on successive days.”
It warned the JD(U) that its fate will be the same as that of other regional parties that have allied with the BJP, like the Assam Gana Parishad, it will be reduced to a marginal partner and its base appropriated by the “Hindutva” party.
“The unprincipled defection of Nitish Kumar will only strengthen the resolve of the Mahagathbandhan to go all out to defeat this shameful gang-up,” Yechury wrote.
The CPI(M) is part of the INDIA bloc, which chose Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge as the opposition front’s chairperson in a meeting on January 13. The same day, Nitish had turned down the post of convener.
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