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NDA struggles without success to succeed in anti-Laloo struggle

Our correspondent in Patna

Ever since Rashtriya Janata Dal's Rabri Devi came to power in Bihar, the National Democratic Alliance had been threatening to launch a state-wide agitation if she is chargesheeted. But now, four days after that has happened, the agitation for her resignation is yet to gain momentum.

The strike call on April 7 proved a damp squib with life remaining quite normal everywhere save in Downtown Patna. Even the dharna in the state capital the day Rabri Devi got bail was a lukewarm affair, though all the NDA senior leaders attended it.

There is, thus, no sign of any mass uprising like the one witnessed after March 5 when Laloo Prasad Yadav called a bandh in protest against appointing the NDA's Nitish Kumar as chief minister.

NDA leaders themselves should take the blame for the failure. Launching a public movement against a man who so convincingly beat them only a few weeks ago amounts to living in a fool's paradise. The morale of the NDA rank and file is shattered and they are yet to recover from the shock of the recent political debacle. And without instilling any confidence into them, the leadership has thrown them into another battle.

There is no denying the fact that the NDA has no mass leader of Laloo Yadav's stature. The cadre-based urban-centric Bharatiya Janata Party is no match to the RJD. The NDA allies got 122 seats largely due to the caste and anti-incumbency factors.

Being the voter is one thing, a die-hard supporter quite different. There may be a substantial number of people who would have voted for the NDA, but there is hardly anyone prepared to support the movement against the state government - anyway, not at the moment.

Besides, there is so much confusion and chaos in the NDA rank and file that it is virtually impossible to launch any full-fledged movement. The state Janata Dal (United) leaders have accused the BJP of hijacking the NDA many times. Only last week, JD-U legislature party leader Ganesh Yadav publicly charged BJP national vice president Kailashpati Mishra with taking money from Rajni Ranjan Sahu, an independent Rajya Sabha candidate.

Not only that, the NDA think tank never bothered to even take into confidence their partners before launching such an important agitation. Without consulting the tribal leaders they announced bandh on April 7. And when the tribals spoke up about the choice of the day (their biggest festival, Sirhul, falls on April 7), the NDA exempted south Bihar from the strike-call, thus compounding the confusion.

Since south Bihar is its forte, it was futile to think of success without it. Even worse, at the press conference in Patna, the NDA leaders claimed of 'success all over the state', not knowing that they themselves had withdrawn the call in south Bihar!

Over the years, the middle-class and the educated, who normally vote for the NDA, have come to realise that the animal husbandry racket is less of a scam and more of politics. The very timing of the chargesheet has exposed the NDA.

The more the NDA partners try to use scams and chargesheets against Laloo Yadav, it would thus appear, the stronger he becomes.

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