The self proclaimed disciple of famous socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia, the Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar has preferred to follow in the footsteps of his rightist autocratic friends.
Though the media in Bihar has been behaving like his subservient and dancing to his tunes, it was raising the issue of brutal assassination of the manager of the Patna office of a private airline that provoked him to lose his cool and use denigrating language against the media.
As if this was not enough he brought a legislation forbidding the criticism of the political elites of the state. Criticising the state government, ministers, MLAs, MPs or officials on social media will land the media man in jail. Nitish Kumar’s administration has brought under the ambit of cybercrime “objectionable comments” by individuals or organisations against the government and its functionaries and lawmakers.
His move reminisces the Press Bill of 1982 brought by the then chief minister Dr Jagannath Mishra. He was facing the criticism from a section of media of being involved in corrupt practices. People have come to nurse the notion that he has lost his control and grip on the administration. In fact this binary has turned him aggressive and intolerant to face disparagement. People believe that his writ no more runs in Bihar.
Incidentally the latest enactment comes six years after the Supreme Court struck down Section 66A of the IT Act, which criminalised “offensive” online comments, on the ground that it violated the constitutional right to free expression. A week back the economic offences unit (EOU) of Bihar police, which is nodal agency to tackle cybercrime, asked senior government officials to provide detailed information if they come across “objectionable comments made by undesirable persons or organisations against the Bihar government on the social media or the Internet, so that effective action could be taken against them as per the law”.
According to the police officials, the move had become necessary because of the increasing “misuse” of the social media. Really it shocking that a person who was perceived as an able administrator and provider of sushasan has turned incompetent and villain in the eyes of the people of the state. The complaints will be routed through the departmental heads (principal secretaries or secretaries).” The EOU comes under the home department, held by Nitish.
Nitish has had the habit of making promise to curb crime and make the administration responsive, but he has been found to be wanting on both the counts. The police is seen as biased and corrupt force. Rape, murder and robbery are regular feature. The situation has deteriorated to such an extent that people have accepted them as fate accomplice.
Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav said; “Nitish Kumar is walking in the footsteps of Hitler. He is a creator of 60 scams, the patron of infamous criminals and a weak head of an unethical and illegal government. The Bihar police sell liquor, protect criminals and implicate the innocent. I challenge the chief minister to arrest me under his latest order.” The Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra said the EOU letter had shown up “a government that is afraid of criticism and is worried over its failures”.
The intensity of the crime could be gauged from the simple fact that BJP legislator Nitin Navin, demanded that Bihar should adopt the Uttar Pradesh model of encounters to tame criminals. It is really intriguing what was stopping Nitish from taking a tough stand. Incidentally he has formed the habit of citing the 15 year rule of Lalu Prasad and hiding his failure behind it. But that is an old story. Nitish has been lording over the state since 2005. This is a long period to develop a state.
Incidentally rumours are making the round in the political circle that central leadership of BJP is working on the plan to replace him by their own leader. Criticism of his functioning is cited as the testimony to this design. The reluctance of the BJP leadership to concede to his desire to induct more JD(U) legislatures as minister is also mentioned as the example. Recently B JP engineered defection of six JD(U) legislators in Arunachal Pradesh. The BJP leadership ignored Nitish’s protest.
In a significant move, Rabri Devi, the former chief minister, said that she would have no objections if Nitish Kumar were to switch sides and join the Grand Alliance. Though Nitish scotched it as rumour party sources do not rule out the possibility. Little doubt the BJP has become a source of anguish for Nitish. He and some senior leaders of JD(U) dropped enough hint at the state executive meet of the party of a shift away from BJP and return to the party’s socialist roots.
Nitish is passing through the worst time of his political which is why he has been resorting to erratic and anomalous actions. With tongue in cheek recently he admitted that the JD(U) could not take his achievement to the people. He did not forget to mention at the state meet: “We belong to the socialist ideology. We believe in the tenets of Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Babasaheb Ambedkar and Karpoori Thakur.”
It is not yet clear whether he is actually interested in breaking his ties with the BJP, one thing is explicit that the baggage of BJP’s crafty politics has started having impact on his personality. By enacting the lawhe has simply smeared his own image with media turning hostile and people indulging in bitter criticism. His party men cite his recent remark “fail to understand who were his friends and who were his enemies during the recently concluded state elections”, apparently reflects his “cluelessness” about his frustration which has been corroding his own party. Party sources point out that his actions and utterances unravel his “helplessness and cluelessness” against the BJP, which is seemingly working to systematically eat into the JD(U) and expand itself over its (JDU’s) residue. Meanwhile the protest against the new law has started gaining momentum.(IPA Service)