Mudda panel dissects Nitish Kumar’s swearing in as Bihar chief minister about 12 hours after his resignation from the post

Thursday’s edition of Mudda discussed Nitish Kumar becoming chief minister of Bihar again after he was sworn in in the morning to form a government, this time with the support of the NDA.

In a little over 12 hours after Kumar resigned as CM of Bihar – pulling out of the Maha Gathbandhan with the RJD and the Congress – at 10 am on Thursday he was administered the oath of office by Governor KN Tripathi, heralding his sixth term.

Interestingly, BJP leader Sushil Modi was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, a post he had held before from 2005 to 2013.Other ministers will be sworn in after Kumar proves his majority on Friday.

In the Anant Tyagi-hosted show the participants were Samajwadi Party spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria, APN Consulting Editor Govind Pant Raju, senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon, RJD spokesperson Naval Kishore, Congress spokesperson Surendra Singh Rajput, JD (U) minister Prabhat Ranjan and BJP minister Vijay Sonekar Shastri.

Ranjan was of the view that the Grand Alliance between the Congress, RJD and JD (U) was becoming an obstruction in the path to development in Bihar. “Nitishji had earlier urged Lalu and his son, Tejashwi Yadav, to come out with facts against the graft charges in public but they failed to do so.

“Meanwhile, they started terrifying Nitishji and said if he has courage then dismiss Tejashwi. Also, during the alliance we didn’t know that Lalu has so many unauthorised properties,” said Ranjan.

Kishore said Ranjan’s statements were baseless. “The JD (U) played back-door politics. Since the time they supported demonetisation, Ram Nath Kovind for president, etc…we knew that they were planning to join hands with the BJP.”

Outraged by the JD (U) move, Rajput said the way Kumar  had ditched the Maha Gathbandhan had brought shame upon politics in Bihar.

Applauding Kumar’s stand, BJP’s Tandon said that any party or organsiation fighting for the goal of a corruption-free India would always be backed by the BJP. “This move by Nitish Kumar has clearly sent out a clear message that he has zero tolerance for duplicity and misconduct. If Lalu wants his party to be in power, he would have asked his son to step down from the post earlier.”

Supporting Tandon’s contention, Raju was of the view that each political party uses the principle of morality according to its convenience. “In my view, Lalu would not have anticipated such a vicious move by Nitish. Basically, he could have easily avoided this situation by just asking his son to resign from the post of deputy chief minister of Bihar.”

Meanwhile, Bhadauria was of the view that if Nitish had no tolerance for corruption, he should  have immediately come out in public after his resignation and have sought fresh elections in the state. He could then urge the residents of Bihar to vote for him again. “If one looks closely, even the BJP is not 100 percent law-abiding,” he said.

Shastri wrapped up the discussion by saying: “The BJP has time and again said that this Grand Alliance would be a failure as Nitish has no tolerance for corruption. This alliance between the JD (U) and the BJP will be beneficial for the welfare and development of Bihar in the coming years.”

Compiled by Deepti Jain