Jitan Ram Manjhi: The Mahadalit factor

The battle is over, but the war is on. It is likely to flare-up again on various fronts in and outside the state Assembly. The born-again Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, is most likely to win the trust vote on March 11. But the more important question is: how will the Janata Dal (United), with its new allies the RJD and Congress, fare with the BJP-led forces in the Armageddon in November 2015? The role of the Fifth Columnists would be quite crucial. The BJP had failed this time, but will it be able to avenge defeat?

The saffron party lost this round because of the lack of appropriate planning and contradictions within. Though Jitan Ram Manjhi always suited its strategy, yet the party’s main face in Bihar, former deputy chief minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, perhaps queered the pitch by going overboard in his non-stop criticism of Manjhi in the first seven months, even though a section of the partymen, for example, one led by former Union minister Dr CP Thakur, always adopted a somewhat soft approach towards him.

Sushil  Modi or SuMo changed gears only at the advent of 2015, perhaps after pressure from the top leadership of the party. Though he may today charge that Nitish Kumar humiliated and insulted a Dalit Chief Minister the truth is that it was none else but SuMo, who made it a point to attack both Manjhi and Nitish almost every day. He did not spare the hapless Dalit leader and had even demanded his arrest, his prosecution, his resignation and what-not. He was charged with dancing to the tune of Nitish Kumar. In almost each and every press conference, Manjhi’s rule was dubbed as Jungle Raj-2 –– the first one being the Lalu-Rabri regime between 1990 and 2005. There was always some uneasiness within a section of the BJP at the vehemence of SuMo’s criticisms of Manjhi and Nitish. Some of the leaders were of the view that Sushil Modi never wanted Manjhi to cross over to his side as this may jeopardise his prospect of being declared as the chief ministerial candidate.

Though this discontent could not be heard in the cacophonous political battle, now that things have settled down a bit and both sides in the process of assessing the loss and gain after the first round, the role SuMo played would certainly come under scrutiny. A faction led by Union minister Giriraj Singh is perhaps yet to forgive SuMo for repeatedly projecting Nitish Kumar as the prime ministerial candidate when he was the latter’s deputy. He never criticised Nitish till the latter sacked all the 11 ministers of the BJP from his cabinet and snapped 17-year-long ties on June 16, 2013.

Though Manjhi, in his speeches would always try to highlight that the performance of his government was better than that of the Nitish regime yet he would, like “Brutus is an honourable man” , continue to shower praise on the man who made a poor Mahadalit like him the Chief Minister of Bihar. Nitish would not say anything, though in private he would grumble. It was in the later days that his spokesmen started hitting out at Manjhi camp-followers.

In contrast the slanging match between SuMo and Manjhi continued for a full seven months. It is in the last 50 days that they mended fences. It was at the fag end of 2014 that Manjhi openly said that he would prefer to die, rather than join hands with the BJP. A few days after Narendra Modi expanded his Cabinet on November 9 Manjhi openly challenged the “Sat-Bhaiya mantris” (seven ministers) from Bihar and said that he would not let them enter if they did nothing for the state. He would also endlessly accuse the Narendra Modi government of slashing the funds for various developmental schemes for Bihar, for example Indira Awas Yojana. 

Gradually Manjhi started asserting himself independently. In Champaran, where Gandhi started his movement in 1917, he said that the Scheduled Castes and Tribes are the original inhabitants of India, while the upper castes have come from outside. This infuriated leaders of both the ruling Janata Dal (United) and BJP. 

At places he would state that though he would give up the post of Chief Minister after the next Assembly election, he would personally like a Mahadalit to succeed him. Manjhi started nursing the hope that a sizeable section of his partymen would come over to his side. It was only when he failed in his endeavour that he started looking towards the BJP for help.

With each passing day his ambitions grew. He knew that after the next Assembly election he would be replaced. If the JD(U) were to win Nitish would naturally become the CM as was agreed in May last year. As JD(U) is not in power in the Centre it can hardly offer him anything after the Assembly election. So why not do something so unusual that he may be counted in the good books of the BJP?

Manjhi knows his importance as the Dalit or Mahadalit leader. If he manages to garner some Scheduled Caste votes for the BJP, or even disturb the JD(U)-RJD vote bank, he would be suitably rewarded as the saffron party is in power at the Centre. A Rajya Sabha ticket or berth in the Union Cabinet in future can not be fully ruled out. 

Herein lies the crux of the matter. SuMo later realised that Manjhi may not be projected as the CM candidate in Bihar. The failed experiment of Kiran Bedi further raised his hopes that the party would not thrust new faces from above. So the same Manjhi, who he wanted to see behind bars, became his best friend.

But the campaign ahead is not going to be easy either for Nitish or the BJP. The former has learnt a bit from Arvind Kejriwal and with folded hands sought forgiveness from the people for the mistake he committed by making Manjhi the Chief Minister. In the BJP camp there still is confusion at the lower levels as workers are yet to reconcile to the sudden change of heart among the leaders. In villages and towns their supporters, mostly upper caste men are still in no mood to relent and fully accept Manjhi. But the leadership is hopeful of convincing them.

The writer is a senior journalist