Politics being clean and moralistic is as utopian a dream as that of a crime-less society. There are variations among various political parties in India with respect to the amount of moralism they practice. Loyalism, however, is found only among select politicians. Loyalties in Indian politics are a rare sight, as leaders continue to swing themselves in a pendulum of self-vested opportunism and individual growth. There have been several times when spectacular ‘betrayals’ were witnessed in Indian politics, and one more may be in the offing with strong signals coming from Patna, Bihar.
The taller the leader in stature, the greater is his paranoia with regards to his political aides. Looking back at history, Sharad Pawar in 1978 hijacked an ongoing assembly session in Maharashtra and announced his resignation along with 38 other Congress MLAs. The then government was being run by two conflicting factions of the Congress, the Congress(S) and the Congress(I). The former was led by Sardar Swarn Singh, while the latter was religiously devoted to Indira Gandhi. The Chief Minister was from the S faction by the name Vasantdada Patil. Pawar too belonged to this faction. However, due to intolerable infighting between these two camps, Sharad Pawar decided to pull the rug from under his mentor’s (Yashwantrao Chavan) feet. Pawar walked out with 38 Congress MLAs to form a new government, and also a new party called Samantar Congress, having the Janata Party, Peasants Workers Party and other smaller groups as allies. Pawar became the youngest chief minister of the state at the age of 38.
N.T Rama Rao, the then Rajnikanth of Telegu cinema, with the only difference that he brought to life major Hindu deities, was backstabbed by Chandrababu Naidu. NTR as he was called, in the 1980’s turned the TDP into an invincible force in the then united Andhra Pradesh. However, the man did not know politics the way one needs to know Indian politics in order to survive. He was an ideal politician, fighting a lonely battle, even as his own MLA’s had bigger ambitions to earn and grow. Chandrababu Naidu, incidentally, even before joining the TDP, had turned into the son-in-law of NTR. Two years later, he formally jumped ship from the Congress to the TDP. Soon, be became the right-hand-man of NTR. Growing dissatisfaction among NTR’s MLA’s and apprehensions regarding his wife Lakshmi Parvati’s motives pushed CBN into revolting against his father-in-law in 1995, thus making him the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Needless to say, Naidu had his own political growth in mind as well.
One other such unceremonious coup was carried out by protege Nitish Kumar, on his mentor George Fernandes. The two had together floated the Samata Party. Being the man Nitish Kumar is, he made sure that Fernandes was reduced to irrelevance in the party that had been collectively funded by them. While George Fernandes handled cabinet positions in Delhi, Nitish Kumar made sure that he was sidelined in the party. George Fernandes, in a letter to Kumar Aurangabadkar, said, “What you mention about Nitish is correct. I brought that fellow but he went on to see that I am sidelined in the party.”
Time has come a full circle for Nitish Kumar. Now that we know how betrayals in politics occur at the drop of a hat, we are making a pre-emption regarding Nitish’s future in Indian politics. A betrayal in waiting by the current JD(U) Vice-President, Prashant Kishor.
Prashant Kishor may be many things, but he is certainly not a master political strategist. The man has been overestimated by gross proportions. This overestimation is what has helped him get the position of Vice-President in Nitish Kumar’s party. While we are still calling it Nitish’s party, we may not do so for long, as the odds are seeming to be turning against his favour.
Prashant Kishor in 2014 made news as the political strategist which ensured a BJP victory in the Lok Sabha polls. This, despite the fact that there was a want for immediate change, supplemented by an unprecedented Modi wave at the time. Kishor definitely has one thing sorted out: to align with the winning party. Perhaps the only time he has not done so has been when he was on board with the SP-Congress combine during the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, in which BJP, frankly, swept all others into political irrelevance. It seems he decided to work for the SP-Congress Mahagathbandhan after falling prey to the media’s relentless fanfare and optimism regarding the alliance. Kishor has worked with BJP, Amarinder Singh, YSR Jaganmohan Reddy, TMC, among others These were all people and parties which were known to be winning even before the elections. Kishore slyly aligns himself with the winning side, or the side which has an upper hand, and then collects all the appreciation for himself when these parties win. As for the TMC, it is a known fact that Mamata’s fortunes cannot be written off just yet. She still stands a fair chance of returning to power in 2021 in Bengal. Kishore is also said to be in talks with the DMK for the Tamil Nadu elections, again, a party, which in all likelihood is set to sweep the state irrespective of Kishor’s presence in their camp.
Till now, Prashant Kishor was seen as an electoral strategist who worked behind the curtains, however, he has been more vocal publicly in the recent past and his elevation to the post of the JD (U) Vice-President, making him second-in-command of the Nitish Kumar led party, has been at the core of this role transformation into an active politician. Kishor’s recent rant against the Citizenship Amendment Act and his obsessive opposition to NRC can be an indication of the times ahead, especially for Nitish Kumar. Kishore is beginning to have a growing footprint among the JD(U) ranks, and apart from deciding its electoral strategies, he is now also influencing core political decisions. Although he was unsuccessful at ensuring that the JD(U) opposes CAA in Parliament, it seems he has been fairly successful in turning Nitish Kumar against NRC after a meeting between the two. The graph of Kishor’s growth in all probability is about to touch the sky, at which moment he will dislodge Nitish Kumar and take control of the JD(U)’s reigns in his own hands.
The BJP would be well advised to call off the alliance with the JD(U) before such an event occurs so that they remain unaffected by the petty opportunism of a superficial political expert. The breaking of ties with the JD(U) by the BJP can be attributed to the loose and contradictory statements of Prashant Kishore, who clearly has no loyalty to the subscribed party line. Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, should expel Kishor from the party if he wishes to remain an active participant in Indian politics.