The much touted merger of Janata Parivar parties seems to have got a brake with leaders of both JD(U) and RJD announcing to go ahead with the respective programmes of their parties separately.
First RJD supremo lalu Prasad on January 14 dashed the hopes of the JD(U) for speedy merger process by saying that all the five parties would merge simultaneously and then JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar did the same asking his party cadre to spearhead their movement against the BJP “merger or no merger.” Now lalu has also announced agitational programme of his party in March giving a clear indication that merger is unlikely to get accelerated.
lalu on Wednesday announced that his party would take out Raj Bhavan March on March 15 on the issue of black money. Calling upon his partymen to gird their loins for the agitation he said, “We will hit the streets alone. We are not concerned who comes or keeps away. Others will eventually come to us.”
He said after the marriage of his daughter he would start his movement and move towards the countryside to make rapport with the masses. Nitish, on the other hand, is busy with imparting training to his party cadre through camps and other means. The JD(U) has also announced its workers rally on February 15 at Gandhi Maidan here and after that, party sources said, he would embark on yatra to hold public meetings across the State in bid to make preparations for the assembly election due in October.
Incidentally, the JD(U) seems not united in favouring merger and even any truck with the traditional rival RJD.
Addressing the party leaders and office-bearers on Wednesday, Nitish quoted US President Barack Obama who had said that India would succeed so long as it is not splintered on religious lines, and said the country would progress only on the line of secularism while fundamentalism and hardline would only harm its interests.
RJD supremo lalu in a more direct swipe asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he would abide by what “your friend” Obama has said on secularism.
Nitish said, “We for 17 long years tried to convince the BJP to shun the communal politics but we did not succeed. Whether Obama succeeded convincing Modi in three days, only time will tell.”
Nitish alleged that conspiracies are being hatched to divide the society on communal lines. “Battle lines are being forcibly drawn between secular Hindus and hardliner Hindus. This will not only shatter the national fabrics but also divide the society and the country,” the former CM said.
Asking the partymen to be prepared to face this sensitive challenge posed by the BJP, the JD(U) leader said communal harmony should be protected and strengthened at any cost, even at the cost of sacrificing life, to save the country from disintegration.
He also suspected that attempts could be made to incite communal frenzy in the State like the one happened in Muzaffarpur’s Azizpur village last fortnight and cautioned the party workers to educate the masses through sustained campaign.
“New methodology has to be adopted to counter this challenge,” he said asking them to remain updated with the latest happening and developments and first educate the party workers down tom booth level. Nitish also asked them to utilise the social media as a weapon to counter the challenges ahead.