Why is Nitish Kumar miffed with ally Chirag Paswan?

The ruling Janata Dal (United) in Bihar has taken umbrage at the statements made by LJP president Chirag Paswan in which the latter questioned Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over the “deteriorating law and order in the State”.

The JD (U) in general and Nitish in particular is believed to be miffed with unwanted criticism from an alliance partner LJP, whose patriarch Ram Vilas Paswan has rubbed shoulders with Nitish during the JP movement in the 70s.

Chirag, the only son of Ram Vilas, last year took over as LJP president and is now touring the poll-bound State as part of his ‘Bihar first, Bihari first’ yatra. It was during this tour that he slammed Nitish on two fronts. First, he said, the law and order in the State has deteriorated a lot. And secondly, he questioned the utility of ‘Dial 100’ when police officials throughout the State remain indifferent to people’s grievances.

“There is an urgent need to control crime. The law and order has deteriorated to a great extent when compared to Nitish’s first term in 2005,” said the junior Paswan, who is also the LJP MP from naxal-infested Jamui.

Taking strong exception to Chirag Paswan’s criticism, Nitish’s close aide and his ministerial colleague Shrawan Kumar asked the LJP chief to desist from making such statements. “Analyse the situation rationally and follow the ‘gatbandhan dharma’ before you speak. Any coalition partner should first rake up the issue at an appropriate forum before publicly criticising the government,” said Shrawan.

The JD (U)’s national general secretary KC Tyagi, without taking the young LJP leader’s name, was more scathing: “Those who have not seen the law and order situation during Lalu-Rabri era, won’t understand how Nitish has established the rule of law in Bihar.”

The JD (U) is all the more peeved with Chirag as he has also taken up the cause of agitating 3.5 lakh teachers in Bihar who are on strike demanding pay parity.

Chirag had earlier put the BJP leaders in the dock after he disapproved of their divisive politics during Delhi Assembly elections. “Make development, not Hindu-Muslim, a poll agenda for Bihar Assembly polls,” said Chirag, dissociating from the BJP’s attempt to polarise voters.