A famous couplet of 16th century poet Rahim, quoted by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday while answering a question on Twitter, has created a flutter in Bihar’s political circles.
Nitish, has started a new initiative #Ask Nitish on Twitter, where he replies to questions put up by the public on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
On Tuesday the Chief Minister was asked by one Sunil Chandak, “If you win with lalu and numbers are significant, how will you be able to give a development-oriented Government (sic)”
To this Nitish replied: “Bihar’s development is my sole agenda. Jo Rahim uttam prakriti, ka kari sakat kusang; chandan vish vyapat nahi lipte rahat bhujang.” (A person of good character is not influenced by bad company, just like sandalwood trees are not affected by the snakes coiled around them).
Some RJD leaders took this couplet to be a reference to lalu with whom Nitish has forged an alliance, and informed the RJD supremo about it.
However, when reporters sought lalu’s reaction to the tweet, the imperturbable RJD chief said he was not sure who the snake in the couplet quoted by Nitish was. “Maybe he was referring to the BJP with whom he had a long association. The snake reference might be in context of the BJP. But it will be better if you enquire him,” said lalu.
On his part, Nitish clarified that he used that couplet in context of his association with the BJP. “BJP is like venom, but I remained unscathed in spite of an alliance with that party and the party could not pursue its communal agenda in Bihar.”
Recalling that when lalu was declaring his name as leader of the alliance, the RJD boss had commented that he was ready to swallow even poison in order to fight the communal forces, Nitish said “Then, many people were saying that lalu called me poison. But he did not mean me but the BJP. Both of us are committed to halt the communal forces and frustrate BJP’s poisonous ideologies.”
Nitish said he has been reiterating that he will not deviate from the agenda of development and rule of law, come what may, till he is there, and added that there are recent examples of this.
Though he did not elaborate, he possibly meant the arrest of two ruling party MlAs Anant Singh and Sunil Pandey recently on criminal charges. Further hitting out at the BJP, he said he realized after parting ways with the BJP how poisonous their ideologies were but he remained unaffected by them.
“I severed ties with them when I felt they were crossing limits,” he added.
The BJP lost no time in mounting an attack on the lalu-Nitish alliance. “The two had vowed to fight the BJP but now they are crossing swords. They are fighting like snakes and trying to bite each other,” said leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly and senior BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav. He added that their alliance was poisonous and people need to be wary of it.
He said Nitish quoted Rahim’s doha in context of his association with lalu and not the 17-year alliance with the BJP.
