Thakur traces the life & times of Bihar’s renaissance man
Sankarshan Thakur’s biography of Nitish Kumar — Single Man, was launched in a packed auditorium at Alliance Française last Wednesday, where the author was in conversation with Arnab Goswami. The 300- page book, published by HarperCollins, tries to present a portrait of Kumar, widely seen as the renaissance man of Bihar. Thakur, also the biographer of Lalu Yadav ( Subaltern Saheb, 2006) uses his expertise on the subject to answer some of the more significant questions surrounding Kumar with his new book, about how a man changed the image of Bihar as a state in the eyes of those who had seen it during Yadav’s rule. “Lalu has this charisma built around himself but during his chief ministership, he really sent Bihar down the tube. Nitish, who also came from a similar sort of background, did manage to give a positive momentum of development in the state. Biharis can be happy with very little,” Thakur said.
On the eve of general elections, sceptics can argue, like Goswami did, that the book may be a wasted effort given the subject isn’t in the race to 7, Race Course Road, but like Thakur said, politicians have more than nine lives.
Goswami, playing the devil’s advocate in a style that has grown on him so well that it’s no longer restricted to his much talked about oncamera demeanour; wasn’t flattered with Thakur’s portrayal of Kumar. “You seem to be very forgiving of Kumar by not giving enough space to his performance post the elections in 2010,” he said, quoting a paragraph from the book. It was in his second term (post-2010 elections), of course, when the renais- sance story mellowed down.
Goswami also raised the question of Kumar’s shuffling of allies in an opportunistic way. Thakur’s answer was an insightful one. “He is a blind chaser of his political aspirations. In 2002, his goal was to get Bihar out of Lalu’s rule, so he went with BJP. Once that was achieved, his focus somewhat shifted to keeping Modi from becoming the Prime Minister. For him, allegiance is temporary and the ends always justify the means.”
On the eve of general elections, sceptics can argue, like Goswami did, that the book may be a wasted effort given the subject isn’t in the race to 7, Race Course Road, but like Thakur said, politicians have more than nine lives. “Lalu Yadav, it can be said, is no longer relevant but Congress is still happy to pick up the crumbs that he is throwing them.”
The deep-rooted animosity between Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi is anything but likely to resolve in the foreseeable future but then again, these things can change pretty quickly in politics.