Nitish in an undue haste to become Prime Minister

                                                         

Nitish seems to be in an undue haste to be declared NDA’s  prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Parliamentary Elections. In an exclusive interview given to Economic Times on Tuesday, he has suggested NDA to announce its prime ministerial candidate without losing any more time. As he knows that Modi may have the strongest claim from the side of BJP for PM’s Position; he has tried to queer the pitch for Modi by suggesting  that the prime ministerial candidate of NDA should have secular credentials, should have no rough edges in his personality and should be seen as accommodating by all sections of society. In order to queer Modi’s pitch further and strengthen his claim better, he has suggested that NDA’s prime ministerial candidate shouldn’t be someone who can develop developed states but should be someone who can feel for underdeveloped states like Bihar.

                                           

Although in the same interview he denies that he himself is eyeing for PM’s chair; however everybody can see through his prime ministerial aspirations very clearly. In fact, he has been nourishing prime ministerial aspirations since last general elections only when some over-enthusiastic sections of the media before the election results, looked at him emerging as a dark horse for PM’s position. Unfortunately for him and NDA, Congress got absolute majority and his prime ministerial ambitions remained unfulfilled at least for time being. Since then he has been trying to position himself as a prime ministerial candidate although in a subtle manner. As he knew that from the side of BJP, Narendra Modi may be the strongest contender and may obstruct his way, he developed Modi bashing as his favorite pastime. As he knows very well that the whole world has been praising Modi for his clean image, good governance, strict administration, dynamic leadership, huge development in Gujarat and hence on the basis of the same he can’t get ahead of Modi, in a frustration, he has, like other pseudo secular intellectuals/political leaders tended to lean towards Modi’s weak spot i.e his alleged role in 2002 Gujarat riots. In order to insult, humiliate and run down Modi’s public image and appease his minority vote bank, he started making a conscious attempt to maintain a distance with Modi. Sometimes, he would get so much enraged at being seen with Modi in some poster that he would even forget the minimum courtesy to be extended towards his guests (comprising of senior BJP leaders) and cancel the dinner over which they were invited in Patna. Sometimes, he would drop writ on his alliance partner BJP in Bihar that Modi can’t campaign for them during assembly elections in Bihar. Interestingly this neo convert secular during 2002 Gujarat riots had remained indifferent to “communal” Modi and preferred to continue as union minister instead of resigning from the cabinet.

It is very unfortunate that when Globally Modi is being acknowledged for his efficient administration and huge development in Gujarat, Nitish continues to follow into the footsteps of hypocrite pseudo secular leaders from UPA,SP, RJD etc. and run down his valuable colleague from NDA. He should know that same Modi, who was being so much ostracized world over in the after math of Gujarat riots that he was even refused visa by the US Govt.,  is now being praised all over the world for his development in Gujarat. He should know that same  foreign press which never got tired of criticizing Modi earlier for his alleged role in 2002 Gujarat riots have now become so great fan of development politics of Narendra Modi that he  is being accorded honorable status of appearing on the front page of prestigious Time Magazine.Nitish should know very well that People like Modi not because of his alleged "hardline hindutva" image but because of his clean image, good governance, strict administration, dynamic leadership etc. They also feel that whatever people may allege, under Modi’s leadership, Gujarat has been almost communal violence free and all sections of society including minorities are reaping the benefits of huge development in Gujarat. And for this reason only, People want him to replicate his success in Gujarat at all India level too under his prime ministership.  And for this reason only, a vast section of the society want him to become PM of the country in 2014.

It doesn’t mean, however, that Nitish doesn’t deserve to become PM of the country in future. Definitely, even Nitish has very clean image and even he is considered as a very efficient administrator. Even he is trying his level best to develop Bihar. When compared to Jungle Raaj of Laloo-Rabri for fifteen long years in Bihar, he is a vast improvement over them; however when compared to Modi he lags behind him by a very long distance. While, Modi has brought about all-round development of Gujarat, Nitish’s development so far has been restricted to merely law and order and road construction. While Narendra Modi by improving traditional sources of power generation and by tapping renewable sources of energy viz. solar energy, wind energy etc. has ensured almost 24-hours of uninterrupted power supply in his state, Nitish is yet to meet even a few hours of power demand of his people in Bihar. While,Narendra Modi, acting like a CEO of Gujarat has turned around the state by attracting lakhs of crores of investments in Gujarat, Most of the top industrialists of the country including supposedly highly ethical and non political industrialists like Ratan Tata are all the praise for Narendra Modi for his investment/industrialization friendly approach in Gujarat and have been investing lakhs of crores in Gujarat, Nitish’s performance on this front is far from encouraging. He is yet to create employment opportunities in a meaningful way and lakhs of people from Bihar continue to migrate to metropolitan cities and developed states of the country including Gujarat on regular basis. Although, 13% of Growth rate in Bihar may be a vast improvement from the state’s own standards; however in absolute terms Bihar, under his leadership continues to be almost at the bottom of the table in terms of poverty, economic development and other social indicators.

If this is the kind of  huge gap between development of Gujarat under leadership of Narendra Modi and Bihar under leadership of Nitish , is it not premature on the part of Nitish to venture for prime ministership? Whether Narendra Modi may finally become Prime Minister of the country in the miasma of pseudo secular politics or not; however, on the basis of his performance as Gujarat CM, he has aroused optimism of millions of people across the country and definitely he deserves this opportunity better than anybody else including Nitish.

Hence, instead of vying with Narnedra Modi for prime ministership in 2014,Nitish should concentrate on his efforts to develop Bihar.Millions of people of Bihar continue to look at him with glimmer of hope. Bihar came out of jungle raaj and fifteen years of misrule and extreme economic backwardness under dark era of Laloo-Rabri only in 2004.Since then, Nitish has done commendable job on law and order front and road construction; however he need to continue to focus on development of Bihar for at least another two terms so that Bihar is counted at least among top ten states of the country.Till then , he would be better advised to follow the economic development model of Narnedra Modi in Gujarat instead of nourishing prime ministerial ambitions and trying  to queer the pitch of Narendra Modi.