In defence of a not too prickly political conscience

I pity the so called liberal intellectuals who are accusing Bihar CM Nitish Kumar of eating his own words and making him a delight for caricaturists and cartoonists. Thank God, I am neither a liberal nor an intellectual.

How ironical that the same liberals who are never tired of saying that everybody must have the freedom to eat the food of his choice have gone hammer and tongs against the Bihar CM when he decided to eat his own words. As a citizen, like all of us, the Bihar CM has got the right to eat his words and I will, to the last breath of my life defend Nitish Kumar's right to decide his own menu and turn the dining table upside down on any invited guest.

Let me admit that I admire Nitish for his political demeanour and well cultivated camera grace. I will continue to admire him irrespective of his skilful somersaults. I do not know whether somersault has been made part of ‘skill India’ campaign. If it has not been included, let somersault be included as a rare skill and make it mandatory for entering public life. After all you risk a fall, may be a fatal fall during somersaults. Our CM too falls, but always falls at the right place in his frequent somersaults.

Tell me if it was a sin to keep your conscience in ‘controlled prick mode’. We have a whole breed of politicians who have either sold or mortgaged their conscience. Our CM frequently oils his conscience to keep it in the ‘prick mode’.

If the conscience does not prick when it should have and prick when it should not have, it is the fault of the conscience and not its custodian. Company of the likes of Anant Singh, Sunil Pande and a visit to jail to seek the support of criminals, in the larger interest of the state cannot be disapproved. After all our job is to reform criminals and we cannot reform them without partying with them.

People tend to forget the personal sacrifices made by Nitish Kumar. He cannot lose credibility even if he does things that he said he would never do. He has got a ‘break proof’ credibility. We have to keep in mind the fact that he put his greatest asset, that of a credible leader, at stake, not once but many a time, can only add several notches to his political height.

He may be regarded as the first leader who has deliberately dwarfed himself to make the state prosper. He could have easily been the PM face of 2019. He sacrificed that too, not for any personal gain but to prevent the state from sliding into anarchy.

Used to a somewhat regulated life, our leader makes a post-midnight rush to the Raj Bhawan, so that we may sleep in peace. He could have waited for the sun to rise. To make ‘son set’ you cannot afford to wait for sun rise. He does everything for the people of the state. And then you can serve the people only when you hold the CM's post. Those who do not hold any office cannot serve the people.

Professional sceptics say that Bihar almost went bankrupt after prohibition and the centre was playing financial tantrums. The auction style package announced for the state, to borrow a phrase from Amit Shah, was a Jumla. No sensible CM can see his state starving. He should do everything to get money, whatever be the ‘personal cost’.

Some friends asked me what would I have done, had I been in Nitish Kumar's place. To get the right answer, they have to make me the CM first. True, in the imaginary scenario, I would not have done what Nitish did. The reason is that unlike Nitish, I am extremely selfish.

For me the image of a principled man manufactured with great effort over the years, would have been more important than the Kursi. Of course I would not have continued with a tainted deputy. But then I would not have made someone my deputy whose 'corrupt' DNA was known to one and all. I would have put in my papers and gone to my master, the people to seek a fresh mandate and the permission to share political bed with a previously discarded partner. And now you know, why I am not a CM material.

All said and done, now I want my CM’s conscience to go into sleep mode. Too prickly a conscience can be dangerous for political health. Lynching, genocide, atrocities on Dalits, intelligent sabotage of job reservation, muzzling the press, deportation of 20 per cent countrymen, glorification of Manuvad, replacement of science with superstition and history with fiction should not be allowed to weigh on a bubble like conscience.

Taken from social media account of A Qadir. This is a piece of satire.