Cheating on BJP in Bihar: Shatrughan woos Nitish Kumar openly, gets away scot-free

It is well known that Shatrughan Sinha has been angry with the Bhartiya Janata Party for a while. The dislike is mutual between Patna’s Lok Sabha MP and the Bhartiya Janata Party, both in Delhi and Bihar. Sinha became an almost-open rebel by meeting with Nitish Kumar on the evening of the day prime minister Modi strongly attacked the Bihar chief minister. If Modi attacked the chief minister’s performance in Bihar, Shatrughan Sinha praised it. If Modi attacked the chief minister personally, even questioning his DNA, ‘Shotgun’ Sinha said such bitterness could have been avoided. In his press conference today, he said the BJP was his first and last party. Yet, he also said, “Kal kisne dekha hai (who has seen tomorrow). I do not know whether tomorrow I would be thrown out of the party or embraced by it…I have not thought about it.” [caption id=“attachment_2364424” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Shatrughan Sinha with Pavan Verma after meeting with Nitish Kumar. Image courtesy: Shivam Vij[/caption] Instead of embarrassing his party and its leader, why doesn’t Sinha simply leave the BJP? The answer: the anti-defection law, which would force him to resign as Patna MP if he were to defect from the BJP. If the BJP were to sack him, he wouldn’t attract the penal provisions of the anti-defection law. This leaves the BJP in a Catch-22 situation. If it doesn’t sack Sinha, he could keep provoking and embarrassing the party. If it sacks him, he will join Nitish Kumar’s JDU. That would be an embarrassment the BJP can’t afford before the October polls in Bihar. It may have sidelined Sinha but can’t discount his abilities as a crowd puller. Sinha clarified in a press conference that his leader is Narendra Modi and that he has utmost respect for the BJP, but this is all sweet talk to help him come across as a victim, and not a rebel. In truth, the very act of going across to the chief minister’s residence for three hours in the evening was message enough from him. He has let it be known that he was taken there by JDU’s Rajya Sabha MP Pavan Verma. In comments to the media, he praised not only Nitish Kumar but also Pavan Varma in glowing terms. A failing marriage So bad are the relations between Shatrughan Sinha and his party that he was not even invited to the prime minister’s rally in Muzaffarpur on Saturday, just as he was not invited to BJP president Amit Shah’s rally in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on 16 July. He was present at the prime minister’s inauguration of various projects at Patna’s veterinary college yesterday, but that’s only because protocol demanded inviting the Patna MP. Sinha wasn’t even used as a star campaigner in the Jharkhand assembly elections, and his offer to mediate in the controversy at his alma matter, the Film and Television Institute of India, was not taken up. In the Vajpayee cabinet, Sinha was minister in 2003-04. He expected to be made a minister in the Modi cabinet too, but has been overshadowed by another Bihari, Ravi Shankar Prasad. “People ask me why I have not been included in Narendra Modi cabinet despite having seniority, experience and popularity, but I have no answer,” Sinha told the Press Trust of India in May this year. Sinha’s response to being dumped is to regularly provoke the party. The meeting with Nitish Kumar has come after weeks of provocative public statements. Knowing fully well that the BJP wants to contest the Bihar elections with Narendra Modi as its face, Sinha told the media that Ram Vilas Paswan or Jitan Ram Manjhi (both Dalits) should be declared the party’s chief ministerial candidate. It doesn’t help that Sinha is considered close to LK Advani, who has been left out in the cold by prime minister Narendra Modi. In an interview to Mumbai Mirror newspaper just two weeks ago, Sinha was openly critical of the party and the Modi government, and said that LK Advani had twice wanted him to be made Bihar chief minister. Sinha has, unsurprisingly, been vocal in his demand to give LK Advani due importance in the BJP’s decision making processes. Prime Minister Modi attended Sinha’s son Kussh’s wedding in Mumbai in January but their relations have been going downhill since then. Sinha’s grouse is not just that his party isn’t giving him any post, but that they aren’t even giving him respect. The BJP, on its part, feels that Sinha has a big ego, and is too ambitious. Some question his political abilities and achievements, given he spends more time in Mumbai than Patna. The 69-year-old Bollywood star said no political meaning should be attached to his meeting with CM Nitish Kumar, even though he clearly intended to convey nothing but a political message. The chief minister’s office tipped off ETV Bihar about the meeting and a TV reporter was standing in the portico when Sinha and Pavan Varma were leaving around 10 pm. Sinha gave the TV channel a statement that resulted in him getting a flood of phone calls from local and national media within minutes. When Firstpost spoke to him, a smiling Pavan Varma quoted Mirza Ghalib: Kehta Hun Sach Ke Jhut Ki Aadat Nahin Mujhe Kaise Kahuun Ki Tujh Se Muhabbat Nahiin Mujhe (I speak the truth because I don’t have the habit of lying. How do I say I don’t love you?)