Bihar: How Bihar chief minister Manjhi proved smarter than mentor Nitish

Patna: Nitish Kumar expected Jitan Ram Manjhi to be a puppet dancing to his tunes when he selected the latter to be his replacement as Bihar’s chief minister. It was a smart move which allowed the virtual JD(U) boss to remote control the government while staying busy in electoral mobilisation of the masses. To his discomfiture, the puppet has assumed a life of its own and is no more ready to respond to the master’s calls. Manjhi is turning out smarter than he expected.

To the embarrassment of the party leadership, Manjhi is courting controversy every now and then through his indiscreet — which some feel are well calculated — remarks. The leadership had asked him not to make such statements and maintain restraint after he went shooting from his mouth repeatedly saying “upper castes are foreigners and descendants of the Aryan invaders while Dalits and Adivasis indigenous citizens of India”. He responded by declaring from a public forum that he would continue speaking his mind come what may. “I can’t be cowed down. What I am doing today I will go on doing in future as well… Jitan Manjhi ghabaranewala nahin hai… Tut jayega lekin jhukega nahin (I am not a bit worried. I can break but can’t surrender.”

The party cannot do more than wait and watch as the equations within the party and outside have changed in the last few months. If it acts against Manjhi and tries to replace him, it faces the risk of annoying the Mahadalit community, on the other hand, if it tries to ignore the chief minister’s “utterances” it risks annoying the upper caste voters. Many of the ministers in the Majhi government still come from the upper caste community. After its dismal performance in the general elections this summer, where it won only two seats compared to 20 in the previous election, the party is eager to woo back the upper castes who voted for the BJP.

The problem with the JD(U) at the moment is it does not have a particular vote bank, like M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) support base of Lalu Prasad’s RJD, or cadre base to fall back on as has been the case with the BJP or the Left parties. Until June last year, the JD(U) was enjoying the support of the upper caste voters, who constitute 14 percent of the electorate in the state, but that cushion was gone when Nitish abruptly ended the more than two-decade old alliance with the BJP. Now, the JD(U)’s lone hope was the huge Mahadalit constituency which accounts for roughly 22 percent of votes. It was precisely to attract this section that he offered chief ministership to Manjhi, a Dalit.

According to media reports, the party is weighing its options in case it must throw Manjhi out for his confrontational attitude. If the political grapevine is to be believed, Uday Narayan Chaudhary, another Mahadalit leader currently holding the post of Bihar assembly Speaker, could be asked to take over. However, the RJD is not in favour of the latter. RJD’s grudge is that Chaudhary as an assembly Speaker had hurriedly recognised the splinter RJD group as a “separate block” when 13 out of 22 RJD legislators raised a banner of revolt against the party leadership in February this year just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. A furious Lalu had then hurriedly taken to the street.

Reports are that the RJD chief personally likes Manjhi and had even backed the latter’s statement about upper castes during an interaction with the media persons in Ranchi. Manjhi is considered as a clear-hearted politician in the RJD circles, sources said.

Another trouble with the JD(U) is that it does not have the numerical strength to take any decision about leadership change on its own. The party is currently left with only 113 MLAs in the state assembly—nine short of majority mark—after the assembly Speaker recently terminated the membership of four party lawmakers holding them guilty of anti-party activities. The government now survives at the mercy of the RJD and the Congress.

Further, the JD(U) also looks “divided” over Manjhi’s remarks on the upper castes. While the upper caste leaders have reacted bitterly to the chief minister’s, the Dalit and backward leadership has strongly backed Manjhi. Given this situation, there remain the greater chances of rebellion within the party in case the JD(U) leadership tries to remove him from power.

“The open criticism of Manjhi is not fair. If someone within the party has any grievances with him, he should put his views at the party forum and not in the public,” Bihar education minister Brishen Patel has reacted.

Another party legislator, Arun Manjhi, was more vitriolic on Manjhi’s critics. “There should not be any confusion that Manjhiji is alone and they (critics) can go on attacking him since he is a Dalit. All the Dalit leaders are with him (Manjhi) and will oppose tooth and nail any such further attacks on the CM in future,” he warned. Their reactions were in response to demand from a section of upper caste leaders within the party to “rein in” Manjhi or even remove him from the post of chief minister.

The “indecisiveness” of the JD(U) leadership looked only too apparent when the top leaders went silent about him. Party president Sharad Yadav refused to make any comment over Manjhi while Nitish said he would be saying anything only after November 29.

But Manjhi clarified some people are trying to create confusion between him and Nitish. “Some people are trying to create confusions between us but I want to tell you that ‘garib garib ho sakta hai, beiman nahin’ (I can be poor but am certainly not dishonest),” Manjhi told Nitish at a function.