Nitish mum as Bihar BJP leaders spew communal venom after bypoll loss

Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) President Nitish Kumar’s inner voice—which led him to set aside the mandate given by the people of Bihar in 2015 assembly elections to the RJD-JDU-Congress Mahagathbandhan—seems to have either stopped working, or he is not listening to it anymore.

Nitish Kumar has remained conspicuoudly silent as his new-found allies in the BJP freely spew communal venom after their loss in the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll.

As it became clear on Wednesday, March 14 that the Bharatiya Janata Party was heading for a defeat at the hands of the Rashtriya Dal candidate in Araria, Bihar’s BJP Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi put out a patently communal tweet. Modi said that minority votes in two minority-dominated assembly segments in Araria enabled RJD’s Sarfaraz Alam to win.

BJP Union minister Giriraj Singh echoed Modi’s views and was quoted by Times of India as saying that BJP’s defeat would mean that Araria would now become a “hub of terrorism”.

Before the bypoll elections, Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai had gone to the extent of warning that Araria would become an ISI den if RJD won, for which he was booked by Bihar Police against a complaint.

While no response as yet has come from Nitish Kumar, RJD Leader of Opposition in Bihar Tejashwi Prasad Yadav has led the charge against the communal fulminations of the BJP leaders.

Now on Friday, March 16 morning, BJP MP Gopal Narayan Singh added his own bigoted views. “Have been raising this issue since long that Kishanganj, Katihar & Araria (all in Bihar) are slowly turning into Pakistan but govt's inaction, thinking & vote bank-politics has pushed Bihar towards the brim of destruction,” said the Rajya Sabha member.

All through this, the man who once coined the slogan ‘Sangh-mukt Bharat’, remains mum. Is it any wonder that communal incidents are on the rise in Bihar, under such a helpless Chief Minister?