![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Yes-I-am-Bihari.jpg?resize=640%2C991&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Vivekanand jha, Ranchi. The pan Bihari identity that Nitish Kumar sought to build when he gave
\na clear call of ‘Han, Ham Bihari hain’, stands incontrovertibly
\npunctured at the altar of his anointing a successor from his own Kurmi
\ncaste, despite there being several competent leaders from forward
\ncastes. Willy nilly it has struck a nail in the coffin of a pan Bihari
\nimage of ‘Yes, I am Bihari’ being a solitary identity of one and all
\ncutting the caste barrier.<\/p>\n
Finally, as was expected, Nitish Kumar handed over the baton of party
\nleadership to his fellow brethren, Ramchandra Pratap Singh, a Kurmi
\nfrom his home district, Nalanda. That Nitish was destined to do the
\nsame, became ostensibly obvious when Prashant Kishor, a poll
\nstrategist, whom Nitish Kumar had given the absolute credit for
\npiloting the ship of Mahagathbandhan, towards the decisive victory in
\n2015 state election, was given the boot. In fact, for the observers of
\nBihar politics, such a move in a party which has the tag of being a
\nKurmi’s party, where a Brahmin, Prashant Kishor, was purportedly
\nseeking the mantle of leadership, naturally caused a tremendous sense
\nof discomfiture and resentment among those who were expectantly
\nlooking forward to someone from Kurmi, preferably from Nitish’ home
\ndistrict, could eventually be anointed as the successor of Nitish
\nKumar.<\/p>\n
Incidentally, even RCP Singh, the recently anointed Party President,
\ntoo appeared tense with the goings on within the party apparatachik,
\nespecially in view of the growing clout of Prashant Kishor within the
\nparty, and Nitish’ rock like standing behind the former for ensuring
\nhim the victory at the hustings. However, as it was expected, the
\nbonhomie between Nitish Kumar on the one hand, and Prashant Kishor and
\nPavan K. Varma, on the other ended abruptly when the duo discovered,
\nto their disillusionment, that the so-called Vikas Purush, needed a
\nbattery of ‘yes men’, and therefore, if they needed to stay within
\nJDU, they should learn the technique of kowtowing the wishes and
\nwhimsicalities of their boss. Significantly, neither of them-both
\nPrashant Kishor and Pavan K Varma-being men of independent minds,
\nfailed to live up to the expectations of the party’s ethos-the party
\nintended them to be submissive and not outspoken. It was during the
\nturbulent times when Nitish Kumar, putting to shreds all his morality
\nand principles, joined the Modi bandwagon, while ditching Laloo Yadav.
\nPavan K Varma, to his credit, refused to join the cheerleaders of
\nNitish Kumar and called his bluffs. Prashant Kishor too, having
\ndiscovered himself on the periphery of JDU, not being given the
\ncommensurate responsibilities which he expected to come his way, too
\nsided with Pavan K Varma to raise accusing fingers at Nitish’
\nautocratic leadership.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, Nitish, as Varma had strongly alleged, had simply
\nbreached the party’s collective resolution by overturning it as per
\nhis own whims and fancy, going by his own political expediency.
\nApparently, Pavan K Varma forgot the fundamentals: in one man ‘s
\nparty, far from political principles and moral scruples defining the
\npolitical moves, it is the supremo’s whimsicalities that govern the
\nconduct of the party. A consensual leadership or democratic
\nfunctioning is the paradox in so called vibrating democracy like
\nIndia. No wonder Prashant and Pavan K Varma realised it to their utter
\nlack of wisdom, in the prevailing scenario, that democracy is the ruse
\nbehind prevailing autocratic leadership styles of leaders prevailing
\nacross the political spectrum. Once the duo was out, the conservative
\nand traditional votaries of casteist orientation completely took
\ncontrol over the party. RCP Singh, a bureaucrat turned politician,
\nincidentally from the same district as Nitish Kumar, whom Nitish Kumar
\ninvited to join his party, was all along tipped to step into Nitish
\nKumar’s shoes, was handed over the party’s rein, finally.<\/p>\n
Regrettably, all the veterans who were together with Nitish Kumar, Vivekanand jha, Ranchi. The pan Bihari identity that Nitish Kumar sought to build when he gave a clear call of ‘Han, Ham Bihari hain’, stands incontrovertibly punctured at the altar of his anointing a successor from his own Kurmi caste, despite there being several competent leaders from forward castes. Willy nilly it has struck a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nitish-kumar.jpg?fit=700%2C466&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paS11m-yr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nduring the Student’s Movement in the 70’s were simply ignored. For
\ninstance, Vashistha Narayan Singh, Lalan Singh and even K.C.Tyagi -all
\nthe senior leaders were disdainfully ignored for the post of the party
\npresident. In fact, Nitish Kumar, was unambiguously conveying a
\nmessage to the larger public: JDU, notwithstanding all its political
\npostures, remains the party of Kurmis as its base. Whereas it may add
\nlustre to itself by inviting more and more people from beyond its
\ncaste, yet it should remain a party of Kurmis. Ironically, Bihar,
\nwhere caste is the determining factor, rather a paramount factor for
\nrise in politics or even in other fields, Nitish Kumar’s rise in Bihar
\npolitics was a harbinger for a positive change-it was expected that he
\nwill break the hitherto vicious caste matrix that inevitably inhibited
\nBihar’s rise as a numero uno state in the country, especially when
\nNitish Kumar was seeking to cobble up a pan Bihari identity.
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Nitish-kumar.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\")
\nNo wonder taking cue from this writer’s\u00a0 famous book Yes, I am Bihari,
\nNitish Kumar had given a clarion call of ‘Han, Ham Bihari hain’,
\nunfortunately the same man will recoil yet again to caste factor
\nswaying his decision, is the vindication of the contagion that
\ncasteism has come to occupy in the people’s psyche. Worse still, when
\nhistory afforded an opportunity for Nitish Kumar to break the jinx, he
\ntoo chickened out, thereby giving a decent burial to the earnest hope
\nthat he will bite the bullet to rewrite the history of Bihar.
\nEspecially when he was organising Bihar Diwas to showcase the glory of
\nBihar, himself would end up as the casualty of the age old congenital
\nvice of identity politics taking precedence over all other
\nconsiderations. Unfortunately, in Nitish Kumar’s decision to anoint
\nRCP Singh, Bihar has once again missed the bus.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/himalini.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG-20201215-WA0013.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1\")