by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News

Nitish Kumar and former Human Resources Development Minister Mewalal Chaudhary
The incident once again exposed the double standards of both Chief Minister and BJP leaders of the state.
Soroor Ahmed | PATNA
After the Pyrrhic victory in the recent Assembly elections in Bihar, the Nitish Kumar government got off to a disastrous start with Human Resources Development Minister Mewalal Chaudhary being asked by the Chief Minister to put in his papers within 72 hours of the oath-taking ceremony on November 16.
It was a self-inflicted wound which may take a long time to heal for the new government. At the same time, the incident once again exposed the double standards of both Nitish Kumar and BJP leaders of the state.
Mewalal, the second-term Janata Dal (United) MLA, was the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Bihar Agriculture University, Sabour, in Bhagalpur district between 2010 and 2015. During the same period, his late wife, Neeta Chaudhary, was the MLA of the Janata Dal (United). The BJP was then a constituent of the National Democratic Alliance—actually till June 16, 2013. It was on this day that Nitish snapped 17-year old ties with BJP and sacked all its 11 ministers.
It was during Mewalal’s five-year tenure as the VC that assistant professor-cum-junior scientists were appointed. When Mewalal’s term as the VC ended in 2015, he joined the Janata Dal (United) and, in November the same year, was elected as the MLA from Tarapur in Munger district. He, in fact, replaced his wife as the party candidate.
Since Nitish was heading the Grand Alliance government– with RJD and Congress as partners—between November 20, 2015 and July 26, 2017, the then leader of Opposition, Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP, picked up the old issue of irregularities in the appointment of assistant professor-cum-junior scientists by the Bihar Agriculture University and sought the arrest of Mewalal, who had by now become an MLA.
What Sushil Kumar Modi chose to deliberately overlook is that in the first three of the five-year tenure of Mewalal as VC, BJP was very much a partner of Nitish government and was holding almost all the important portfolios. He himself was the deputy CM-cum-finance minister.
But as he wanted to score some political brownie points and corner the Grand Alliance government, Sushil Kumar Modi went on the warpath. It was the then Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind, now the President of India, who appointed a retired Patna High Court judge to probe the matter. The inquiry committee indicted Mewalal and, on this basis, an FIR was lodged against him. Mewalal went underground and his party suspended him.
In the meantime, Nitish took a big U-turn and on July 27, 2017 made a homecoming to the NDA. Sushil Kumar Modi then put the matter on the backburner.
The same Mewalal once again was elected as the Janata Dal (United) MLA with open cooperation of BJP leaders and cadres. Not only that, a request for prosecution and charge-sheeting him has been pending for the last one year in Raj Bhavan for the sanction from the Governor, who also happens to be the Chancellor of universities of Bihar.
So everything went on smoothly with full knowledge of Nitish and Sushil Modi. However, the leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejaswi Prasad Yadav, kicked up a storm by tweeting that Mewalal was the same person against whom BJP had in the past raised a ruckus. The RJD leader called for his immediate dismissal and arrest. The CPI-ML, also a Grand Alliance constituent, threatened to take the matter to the streets.
In the meantime, a former IPS officer, Amitabh Kumar Das, openly demanded a probe into the death of Mewalal’s wife, Neeta Chaudhary, under mysterious circumstances last year. She died in a gas cylinder blast in Delhi. Mewalal, too, sustained injuries.
Though the Janata Dal (United) spokespersons are busy defending the Chief Minister, the latter has come under heavy fire in social media with netizens asking how he can overlook such a publicised episode and make Mewalal a minister. After all, it is the same Nitish Kumar who took no time to abandon Grand Alliance within days after the same Sushil Kumar Modi raised the issue of the alleged IRCTC scam and in which Tejaswi’s name had also figured.
Curiously, hardly any follow-up action has been taken in this case even though the names of several members of the Lalu Prasad family had come up.
In the same way, on November 24, 2005, Nitish Kumar asked Jitan Ram Manjhi to resign within a couple of hours after the oath-taking ceremony. Moments after Manjhi was inducted into the cabinet, Nitish learnt from the media that his name had figured in a scam when he was a minister in the previous RJD government.
Nitish then argued that he had zero tolerance against corruption. Manjhi was made a minister later when his name was actually cleared.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News

Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s assertions are based on lies. Neither the Jamaat nor the PFI is a political party. Accusing the Congress of allying with “radical organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami and Popular Front of India (PFI)” shows the frustration of the saffron party.
Tejashwi has upset the calculations of the saffron party by raising real issues of employment and development for which the BJP has no answer
Shaheen Nazar | NEW DELHI
Bihar appears to be slipping out of the hands of BJP and its main ally, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United).
At least, Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi’s attack on Congress points towards this fact. Addressing a press conference at BJP headquarters in Delhi on Sunday, Naqvi accused the Congress of allying with “radical organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami and Popular Front of India (PFI)” in poll-bound Bihar and sought to know if RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and his party are also part of such “an understanding”.
Naqvi’s assertions are based on lies. Neither the Jamaat nor the PFI is a political party. Naqvi has also referred to the Welfare Party of India (WPI), supposedly a front of the Jamaat. But WPI, a small political party formed nine years ago, has no unit in Bihar and it is not contesting any seat or even supporting any party.
PFI’s political front Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) is participating in the three-phase Bihar assembly elections with the first phase slated for October 28. But again, it has formed an alliance with some smaller parties which are not part of the Mahagathbandhan comprising the Congress, RJD and Left parties.
“For the convenience of the Congress, Jamaat-e-Islami has formed a political party, probably named it Welfare Party,” alleged Naqvi. Welfare Party president SQR Ilyas termed Naqvi’s statement as “frustration” of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“The BJP appears to be in panic after seeing massive crowds at the rallies of Tejashwi Yadav. The RJD leader has upset the calculations of the saffron party by raising real issues of employment and development for which the BJP has no answer. It has been denied its usual plank of polarising voters along communal lines,” Ilyas said.
BJP’s attack on Congress has come just two days after CPI(M) made a similar charge against the Congress. The Left party’s attack is also related to the election, but it is related to civic body polls in Kerala.
The party, which leads the ruling Left Democratic Alliance (LDF) in Kerala, on Friday accused the Congress of “surrendering” its secular stance before the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), stating that it is now “led by Jamaat-e-Islami’s ideology”.
The accusation has a background. The Congress-led United Democratic Alliance (UDA) has decided to have electoral adjustments with some smaller parties, including the Welfare Party, for the coming local body elections in the southern state.
CPI(M) Politburo member and party’s state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told the media that IUML had “strongly opposed” Jamaat-e-Islami in the past. “Now, IUML has abandoned that stand and has no reservations to work with Jamaat-e-Islami, which wants to establish an Islamic country. It is parallel to the stand of RSS, which aims at Hindu Rashtra. The decision of the Congress to work with WPI would have far-reaching consequences,” he said.
Balakrishnan criticised the Congress which, according to him, “has surrendered its secular outlook before IUML for a few votes”.
Interestingly, CPI(M) leader criticised the Congress for aligning with a Muslim party a day after welcoming in the LDF fold the Jose K Mani faction of regional Christian party Kerala Congress (M).
Welfare Party’s Ilyas told Clarion India that his party had had a similar seat sharing arrangement with Left parties in five districts of Kerala in 2015 local bodies election. This had helped the party win 42 seats.
He said seat sharing among political parties was quite normal. According to Ilyas, his party was in negotiation with both Congress and Left parties for the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal. “In Kerala, the Congress and Left parties are rivals. But in West Bengal, they are going to fight jointly. And we are going to have some sort of arrangement with both,” he said.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate

Pappu Yadav (second from left) and other alliance leaders in Patna on Monday. (Photo Courtesy Facebook)
Patna: In a bid to outdo the ruling JDU-led NDA and RJD-led Maha Gathbandhan former MP, Pappu Yadav-led Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) on Monday launched a new poll alliance with three other political outfits including Chandrasekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Bahujan Mukti Party (BMP) to contest the Bihar Assembly polls.
Addressing a crowded press conference here, the national president of the Jan Adhikar Party, Pappu Yadav, said the alliance has been formed to put an end to the 30-year misrule in the state.
Without mentioning the name of NDA and Mahaghatbandhan, he asserted that “There are two alliances in Bihar, one is casteist and the other is communal. Our coalition is humanitarian. This coalition is about socialism, not politics. We will announce the face of the coalition in the coming days,”
Coming down heavily on the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Yadav said he did nothing to fight the coronavirus pandemic, particularly for migrant workers who were stranded at many places outside the state.
Yadav also blamed Nitish Kumar for failing utterly to extend assistance to helpless Bihari residents in Gujarat and Delhi during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to a question, he said Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP, the LJP, and Congress have been invited to join this alliance in the larger interest of the state.
This is not the final coalition. We will come up with a common minimum programme in the next two days. We will welcome everyone who wants to save Bihar. We are ready to welcome Chirag Paswan, Upendra Kushwaha and we are also ready to welcome the Congress,” he added.
Describing Kushwaha’s as his brother, he said the CM always deceived the people who trusted him.
Chandrashekhar Azad also spoke on the occasion saying they came together to dislodge the communal rule from the state. In reply to a question ‘why you always go to Dalit locality only, he said, “We will always be available at places where a fight for justice is going on and atrocities are being done on any section of the society.”
In his remarks, SDPI vice President Sharfuddin Ahmad said the SDPI has joined the Alliance in the larger interest of Bihar which did not see much development in the last 15 years despite Nitish Kumar has been projected as man of development. He also accused the CM of not doing enough to mitigate the plight and suffering of Bihar’s migrant workers during the abrupt lockdown. He also pointed out that the Modi government passed the anti-framers bills with utter disregard of the parliament proceedings and federal structure but the CM is singing the paeans of the Center and supporting the bills.
It its worth mentioning here that Bihar assembly elections will be held in three phases: October 28, and November 3 and 7. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.
Elections will be interesting in the Muslim-dominated seats particularly in Seemanchal belt as the All India Muslim Majles Itehad Muslimeen (AIMIM) has entered into the fray in alliance with former union minister Devandar Yadav’s Samajwadi Janta Dal’.
In the 2015 Assembly polls, JDU, RJD, and Congress had fought the elections together under the Mahagathbandhan banner. On the other hand, the BJP-led NDA had fought the elections with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and other allies.
After the polls, however, a rift emerged between JDU and the RJD in 2017, leading to Nitish Kumar snapping ties and rejoining the BJP-led NDA to retain power in the state.
RJD with 80 seats had emerged as the single largest party in the elections, followed by JDU (71), and BJP (53) and Congress (27). However, BJP got the largest vote share (24.42 per cent) as it fought 153 seats, followed by RJD with 18.35 per cent and JDU (16.83 per cent).
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Amulya Ganguli,
The aphorism “know thyself” was explained by Greek philosopher Socrates as a phrase which referred to an “unexamined life”. The renewed rumours about Nitish Kumars future plans provoke queries as to whether the Bihar Chief Minister has closely examined his life in politics.
So far, his political journeys have seen him move from the company of his friend Laloo Prasad Yadav during the days of Jayaprakash Narayan’s anti-Congress agitation to Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government at the Centre and an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, to Laloo Prasad Yadav again as a part of an anti-BJP Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) in Bihar and then back to the BJP.
After these switches, there is speculation that he may return to the Mahagathbandhan again. The reason for the latest conjecture, that has dwelt on the possibility of an electoral contest between Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar in Varanasi in 2019, is the latter’s reported unhappiness over the way he has been treated by the Modi dispensation during his latest tenure as the Chief Minister.
A sign of this displeasure was Nitish Kumar’s refusal to have anything to do with the International Yoga Day, which the BJP likes to observe with great fanfare. In addition, the Chief Minister has been sending out signals that he will call the shots in Bihar in the matter of seat-sharing with the BJP in 2019. Since he cannot expect Big Brother to accept this proposition lying down, he is obviously spoiling for a fight.
A recent phone call by Nitish Kumar to Laloo Prasad Yadav to inquire about his health has added grist to the rumour mills despite the categorical refusal by Yadav’s son, Tejashvi, to allow Nitish “chacha” (uncle) to return to the alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.
There are contrary views apart from such gossip which assert that the BJP’s currently somewhat weakened position after several by-election defeats has encouraged the previously embattled Nitish Kumar to assert himself in order to secure a better bargaining position.
Against the backdrop of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s reported advice to the BJP to be more accommodative towards its allies (which made Amit Shah have a closed door meeting with the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray while Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis waited outside), Nitish Kumar has probably decided that the time has come for him to flex his muscles.
At the same time, he may not be averse to playing both sides since sections in the Congress are said to be not unwilling to let him return to the “secular” fold.
Whatever the outcome of these calculations, it is undeniable that Nitish Kumar has done his reputation considerable harm by being the subject matter of such guesswork. There is hardly any other example of a generally well-respected political leader being associated with what only be described as floor-crossing on so many occasions.
Opportunism may be too harsh a word for a senior leader like Nitish Kumar, but what is obvious is that, first, he does not find it easy to choose the right ally and, secondly, that having chosen one, his hopes about how he should be treated fall short of his expectations.
This happened in the days of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar after its trouncing of the BJP in 2015 and has happened again after he joined the BJP two years later. On both occasions, he apparently felt that being the Chief Minister was not enough, for he was not being treated with adequate respect.
Nitish Kumar’s disadvantage is that his support base is not strong enough. Being a Kurmi, a backward caste which constitutes four per cent of Bihar’s population, he was unable to match the social and political clout of the Yadavs, who make up 14.4 per cent, the largest percentage of all the castes in the state, when he was in the Mahagathbandhan.
Now, as an ally of the BJP, Nitish Kumar appears to be unable to cope with the overbearing nature of the Modi-Amit Shah duo. The realisation may be dawning on him, therefore, that his fate marks him out to be a No. 2 person wherever he is, notwithstanding his reputation as “Sushashan Babu” or a person known for delivering good governance, which cannot be said, for instance, of perhaps the most important person in recent years in Bihar’s political life, Laloo Prasad Yadav, who currently alternates between being in jail or in hospital.
Given the shaky nature of Nitish Kumar’s present status, where he does not seem to be at ease in the BJP’s company while the “secular” camp can hardly be said to be waiting for him with open arms, the former poster boy of the national opposition with the potential to be the Prime Minister is at a loose end.
What has led him to a blind alley is a seeming failure to “know” his strengths and weaknesses while taking a hard look at his options in a sharply polarised atmosphere.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics

Nitish Kumar
Patna : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said climate change has been affecting the state over the years and its impact is visible, with monsoon getting delayed every year and the volume of rain also showing a downward trend.
Although the state had hardly contributed to the phenomenon of global warming, it had to face the impacts of climate change, he said.
“Climate change is affecting Bihar and its impact is bad for the state. Not only monsoon arrival is getting delayed year after year, the rain volume during the season has also declined,” Nitish Kumar said in his inaugural address at a two-day East India Climate Change Conclave that began here on Sunday.
Nitish Kumar said climate change was posing a new challenge to Bihar’s agriculture and water resources.
“We have been working to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the state,” the Chief Minister added.
Nitish Kumar and Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan together inaugurated the climate change conclave.
He also raised the issue of increasing siltation in the river Ganga and urged Harsh Vardhan to take up this issue on priority.
“Centre’s ambitious National Waterway-1 (NW-1) project will not succeed unless the issue of siltation is addressed to ensure free and adequate flow of water,” Nitish Kumar said.
According to him, siltation in Ganga is the result of construction of several dams, including Farakka dam, which are interrupting the river’s natural flow at the bottom, leading to deposition of silt.
Ministers and officials from six eastern states — Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Assam — also attended the conclave. They will discuss issues related to the impact of climate change in the region.
“The eastern part of the country is prone to disasters like floods, drought and earthquakes, and climate change has increased the threat of such disasters,” Harsh Vardhan said.
The Union Minister said that personal initiative in addition to global initiative was important to save the world from the perils of climate change.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi said that the state government had set a target of either generating or buying 2,000 MW of solar power by 2022 in order to cut carbon emission.
The conclave has been organised by the Bihar Environment and Forests Department in association with two think tanks — Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and Action on Climate.
—IANS