Buzz in Delhi: Nitish wants to lead the opposition charge in 2019

Lalu Prasad Yadav, like him or not, is not known to mince his words. JD(U) chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to back NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind was described by him as ‘a historical blunder’. But after flying back to Patna, asked by the media whether the ‘grand alliance’ in Bihar was at breaking point, his riposte was, “Do I look like a fool?”

For good measure he also tweeted this week that the alliance in Bihar was as strong as a rock.

An impression, however, has gained ground in the media that RJD, Congress and Nitish Kumar have drifted apart, primarily on the question of declaring Kumar as the combined opposition’s prime ministerial candidate for 2019. People close to him claim that he is genuinely convinced that this is the time for the opposition to announce its prime ministerial candidate. This, they speculate, could have been one reason why Nitish Kumar was cold to the idea of Meira Kumar as the opposition’s candidate for President. He is also said to be confident that he can rally people around him.

The speculation has received a fillip following JD(U)’s decision to take part in the midnight session of Parliament to roll out GST. “We do not approve the hoopla and we are not issuing any whip to ensure our MPs attend—those who want to do so will be free to do so,” explained a senior MP on condition of anonymity. He suggested that it was a pressure tactics resorted to by the Bihar chief minister.

While the message he seems to be giving the Congress and the RJD is that they should not take him for granted, it is never going to be easy for him to cross over to the BJP again. By doing so he would risk losing both OBC and minority support. Besides, there is little that BJP can offer him by way of political office. Having called for a ‘RSS-mukt Bharat’, it is equally uncertain that the RSS would back him for any substantial political office.

Lalu Prasad also has built bridges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. For similar reasons, he too cannot simply walk over. The upshot is, whatever the optics may suggest, the two brothers-in-arms need each other. It was Nitish Kumar who had worked overtime to install Lalu Prasad as chief minister of Bihar. And he may well expect Lalu Prasad to return the favour and help him emerge as the opposition’s consensus candidate to lead the charge in 2019.

BJP’s jitters on GST

Even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was pleading with the opposition to revisit the boycott of the grand, midnight event in parliament to roll out the Goods and Services Tax, Urban Development minister Venkaiah Naidu was fielded to suggest that Congress would ‘repent’ its decision to stay away from Parliament at midnight. Did it betray a little nervousness in the Government ?

Jaitley took pains to stress that GST is not the ‘Government’s decision alone’, that all parties must share the responsibility because they were consulted. He of course glossed over the opposition to rolling out GST in a hurry. Finance ministers of West Bengal and Tripura are on record saying that their states are not prepared for the rollout. The situation in Jammu & Kashmir is equally uncertain.

What has upset the opposition more is the Government making a song and dance about the ‘historic’ reform, ‘the most important event since Independence’. Congress can scarcely be faulted for pointing out how the BJP opposed GST for six years between 2008 and 2014. And getting the Parliament decked up as on August 15, 1947 and projecting it as the result of Narendra Modi’s visionary politics proved to be the last straw.

In any case it is a win-win situation for the opposition. By boycotting the event, they will be distancing themselves if GST fails. If it succeeds, they can always share the credit, quipped a bitter BJP MP.

While the Government is in a celebratory mood, there is some unease in sections of the BJP as well. Quite a few of them have been overheard grimly discussing why Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy went on record to say that GST would be the NDA Government’s Waterloo.

When Jaitley lost his cool

At a recent meeting with bankers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is reported to have lost his cool. The meeting was called to review preparations for the GST rollout. Jaitley appeared to be in good humour till a few bankers tentatively began voicing their apprehension about the preparedness. A few doubted if the portal could handle the load while at least one banker dared to suggest that it was taking a toll on bankers too. The finance minister’s face clouded, reported someone who was present, before he snapped that he did not care how the bankers did it as long as the task was done. After several seconds of uneasy silence, the minister was assured that the task would be completed.

Infosys & its six crore tasks

Infosys was given a contract worth ₹1,380 crore to prepare the technological eco system for rolling out GST. And last few days witnessed all financial papers reporting how Infosys did the impossible, executing six crore tasks in just 18 months. But while the deadline has been met, everyone concerned is said to be keeping his fingers crossed, hoping the site will not crash and technical glitches will not mar the roll out.