Nitish wants JD(U) to go national, no NDA return for now
NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s ambition is to increase his party’s pan-India footprint and make the Janata Dal (United) a national party, he said on Saturday.
Speaking at the 14th edition of the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Kumar ruled out the possibility of returning to the National Democratic Alliance, stressing that his support for the Centre’s demonetisation exercise did not have any political implication.
Kumar’s JD(U) was in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for nearly a decade, and the ties fell apart before the 2014 general elections. The JD(U) leader also denied having any meeting with BJP chief Amit Shah after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock announcement to scrap high-value banknotes — a move that has met with the Opposition’s resistance but got support from Kumar.
On speculations of an anti-BJP grand alliance — like the one in his home state — ahead of the 2019 general elections, Kumar said there was “no serious” talks on the issue.
“My ambition is to resurrect JD(U), my party, as a national party. It is the flag-bearer of the Janata Dal legacy,” the 65-year-old said.
Kumar, who joined hands with arch-rival Lalu Prasad and the Congress to defeat the BJP in the 2015 assembly polls, also said the idea of a grand alliance did not exist outside Bihar.
“What is a grand alliance? For 20 years, we were rivals but then joined hands to defeat someone. Only if Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (traditional rivals in Uttar Pradesh politics) come together…it can be a grand alliance.” However, Kumar, who is tipped by political pundits as a possible challenger to Modi, said he will push to form an alliance at the national level because “it will win (the Lok Sabha polls)”.
When asked by Barkha Dutt, the consulting editor of NDTV, about his alleged meeting with Shah, Kumar joked: “It must have happened in the house of the journalist (who reported it). Why doesn’t he show some photos of our meeting?”
Kumar also took veiled digs at Modi. “Raat din news pe chhaye hai (He is in news roundthe-clock)...is this what you mean by governance? Work less but focus fully on campaign, is this government?” Kumar said, in an apparent reference to the PM’s public rallies. Kumar also said the resignation of former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo as the Nalanda University chancellor and the circumstances around the move were “unfortunate”.
Yeo, the second chancellor of the Nalanda University, resigned recently, alleging that the autonomy of the institute was affected. Yeo said he was “not even given notice” of the leadership change after the government reconstituted the board and severed Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s decade-long association with the university.
Kumar dwelt on the “idea of Nalanda”, and said he will write about the issue to the Centre. The resignation of Yeo was not in the interest of the university and appeared to “infringe on its autonomy”, he said.
“It is the Bihar government that conceptualised the idea of Nalanda…Many people were involved in it from the beginning, and Yeo was one of them,” Kumar said.
The chief minister also said the Nalanda University has a different character and the institute cannot be equated with other universities. “It is an attempt to recreate ancient Nalanda, which epitomised knowledge and learning across the globe. The Nalanda spirit needs to be kept intact,” he said.
“There were talks about necessary amendments in the NU (Nalanda University) act, which did not happen though the board has been constituted. When Prof Amartya Sen (the first chancellor) was not given extension, it was understandable with the change of guard at the Centre.
“In Yeo, there was one person who had been with NU since the conceptualisation stage, but now he has also quit,” Kumar said.
On November 25, a day after the term of the university’s founding vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal ended and an interim VC took over, Yeo put in his papers, saying he was being “overlooked” when important decisions were taken.
KUMAR, WHO JOINED HANDS WITH ARCH-RIVAL LALU
PRASAD AND CONG TO DEFEAT THE BJP IN THE 2015 ASSEMBLY POLLS, ALSO SAID THE IDEA OF A GRAND ALLIANCE DID NOT EXIST OUTSIDE BIHAR