A time-tested farce
At present without a common flag, symbol or manifesto, this rag-tag coalition is heavily dependent on individual egos and foes-turned-friends working together to win the trust of the politically-savvy Bihar electorate
As Karl Marx’s famous quote — “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce” — aptly sums up the situation of the Janata Parivar. The coming together of diverse elements of the earlier Ram Manohar Lohia-Karpoori Thakur followers is today clearly a matter of survival. With the resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies crossing the 40 per cent vote share in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and voters giving clearer verdicts, the Janata Parivar is scrambling together to get their political arithmetic in place. But more than political maths, it is the leaders’ chemistry and their agenda for governance that voters think of at the polling booths.
The real reason behind this retrofitted bonhomie between Nitish Kumar and his bête noir of 15 years, Lalu Prasad Yadav, is the Bihar Assembly elections slated for November 2015. The post-Mandal, pan-OBC coalition fell apart because of personal animosity and inherent Yadav/Kurmi aspirations. The success of Mr Kumar was based on three factors: His fight against the “jungle raj” unleashed by Rashtriya Janata Dal, his party’s alliance with the BJP and his appeal to the economically backward classes/Mahadalit voters.
Most politicians are quick to reinvent and repackage their ideologies for electoral survival. But to imagine that voters suffer from political amnesia is flawed thinking. So, has the RJD become the new benchmark of development politics for Mr Kumar? The other four elements of the Janata Parivar have no real relevance in the shifting sands of the political landscape of Bihar. The aspirations of diverse caste-based formations and the potential of Raj Narain-type maverick behaviour will confront the Janata Parivar. At present without a common flag, symbol or manifesto, this rag-tag coalition is heavily dependent on individual egos and foes-turned-friends working together to win the trust of the politically-savvy Bihar electorate. With the apparent dent in the Mahadalit bloc, the fissures are deepening as quickly as the leaders are trying to cement their intra-party differences. The experiment and subsequent collapse of the Janata Parivar in 1977, 1989 and 1996 is reminiscent of the hazards of inimical forces coming together just to retain or grab power. The ideological glue for equitable development can very quickly vanish because of individual wishes of demagogues who run family-based parties like the SP, RJD, Indian National Lok Dal, Janata Dal (Secular). The BJP gave unflinching support to Nitish Kumar to retrieve Bihar from the so called “jungle raj” of the RJD era.
Numerically, Bihar is a tough electoral battle but the voters will have a choice between cohesive governance offered by the BJP and its allies and the historically divisive factions of the Janata Parivar pulling in different directions.