The CPI(ML) had for long demanded that the JD(U) part ways with the communal fascist BJP, and in this context, the party welcomes the break-up of the JD(U) with the BJP. At the same time, we must point out that the alliance between the JD(U) and the BJP was formed on the basis of opportunism, and has now broken up on the basis of opportunism.
Nitish Kumar and his party have been responsible for giving strength and legitimacy to BJP and Narendra Modi for 17 years, with Nitish Kumar remaining a Minister in the NDA Government even in the immediate aftermath of the Gujarat massacre masterminded by Modi in 2002. It is very apparent that the break-up is not inspired by a genuine concern for secularism and democracy, but out of Nitish Kumar’s opportunist political calculations.
In Bihar, too, Nitish Kumar’s Government has adopted much of the BJP’s feudal-communal agenda and bias whether on the question of justice for dalits and minorities or land reform. The police firing and atrocities on minorities at Forbesganj and the Government’s role in allowing the supporters of Ranveer Sena’s Brahmeshwar Singh to ‘vent their anger’ on dalit students and common people after his killing are prominent instances of Nitish Kumar following in Narendra Modi’s footsteps.
While welcoming the break-up of the JD(U)-BJP alliance, we will not let Nitish Kumar shift the agenda in Bihar, and will hold his Government responsible for all its betrayals and failures on the question of land reform, justice, corruption and people’s rights.
Having finally pulled out of the long and opportunist alliance with the BJP, Nitish Kumar is hobnobbing in an equally opportunist way with authoritarian and corrupt forces like Congress and TMC. Nitish Kumar is now competing with Laloo Prasad to appease the Congress.
Narendra Modi has come to represent the agenda of communal as well as corporate fascism. This agenda can be resisted only by a people’s movement and a politics firmly committed to defending democracy against the corporate stranglehold and state repression. Nitish Kumar’s Government in Bihar, and the Congress Government at the Centre and in various states, have proved to be a miserable failure on this count.
The CPI(ML) will oppose the BJP’s Bihar Bandh called on 18 June, calling for people of Bihar to firmly reject and resist the feudal-communal politics and corporate-communal agenda of the BJP and the JDU alike.
Kunal
Secretary
Bihar State Committee, CPI(ML)
