'Congress(I) betrayed its own voters'

"Nitish Kumar may have had the second shortest tenure (after Satish P. Sinha) who headed a coalition government for four days in January 1968) as Chief Minister in Bihar's history, but do not write him off yet. He may be down, but he is not out. H e is capable of turning around this failure into a political victory in the future." This was how a senior Congress(I) leader reacted to the fall of the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance Government. The majority of Samata Party supporters wou ld agree with this view. According to several of them, with his elevation as Chief Minister, albeit for seven days, any doubt as to who should be the NDA's chief ministerial candidate in the future has been laid to rest.

It is in this context that the former Union Minister has decided not to return to the Centre but stay back in State politics. Obviously, he is in an aggressive mood, and has launched an agitation against Chief Minister Rabri Devi's "corruption" and the C ongress(I)'s vishwasghaat (betrayal) of the people's mandate. Venkitesh Ramakrishnan met him for an interview a day after his resignation. Excerpts.

During and the after the campaign you had repeatedly said that you were neither fit nor available for the post of Chief Minister. Yet, when it came to the crunch you accepted the offer, only to fall flat in seven days.

I think that my earlier statement has been more than justified as I have not been able to hold on to power. Well, jokes apart, my decision to become Chief Minister was made in the collective interests of the NDA and the State. In the hung Assembly situat ion, the leadership of the NDA saw Bihar as a challenge. They also thought that I would be able to come out tops. Unfortunately, this did not happen because the Congress(I) betrayed its own voters and the mandate the people gave it, by joining hands with the RJD.

You seemed to have pinned all hopes of the survival of your government on a split in the Congress(I). Do you think that it is a politically and morally tenable position?

I think that you are missing the wood for the trees. The fact is that the Congress(I) fought the elections on an anti-RJD platform. Sonia Gandhi and Madhavrao Scindia came and apologised to the people of Bihar for supporting Laloo Prasad Yadav. After doi ng all this, they finally go and join up with the RJD. This is what is politically and morally wrong, and not our expectation that those who fought on a particular slogan would stand by it.

But there are reports that you tried to win over a section of the Congress(I) with allurements

Nothing of that sort happened. We were in contact with a dozen Congress(I) MLAs. And all that we discussed was politics. There was talk of a political deal, like granting Jharkhand and punishing those responsible for the 'jungle raj'. No other considerat ion was talked about.

But there is a view that while A.B. Vajpayee had a better image and had consolidated his position after the 13-day tenure as Prime Minister in 1996 because he refused to resort to horse-trading, Nitish Kumar is on a sticky wicket as he tried to engine er a split in the Congress(I) and hobnobbed with notorious underworld dons who won as Independents.

What do you mean notorious dons? Just because there are a few cases against some people, do they become dons? In any case they have won the confidence of the people.

But that can be said of Laloo Prasad Yadav too. He has won the confidence of the people too. How can you protest against his becoming Chief Minister just because there are cases against him?

No. The number of the RJD's seats has actually come down from what it was earlier. In any case, one cannot mix up all cases.

There is also a view that RJD's performance actually reflects the strength of the secular vote in Bihar, and that it was issues such as permitting government employees to participate in the activities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the s etting up of the Constitution review panel that caused the NDA's reverse.

The RJD, the Congress and the Left parties are excessively opposing the BJP. The more they oppose the BJP, the greater will be its growth. But ever since we joined the NDA, the BJP had to give up contentious issues as (the abolition of) Article 370 and A yodhya. Parties like the RJD brush aside all pertinent issues, such as unemployment, poverty and illiteracy, in the name of secularism.

Do you think that the election results would have been different had you been projected from the beginning as Chief Minister?

One cannot hazard a guess. But the party primarily responsible for the return of the RJD to power is the Congress(I), which went against its own professed convictions. It campaigned on an anti-RJD platform, took away votes that should have naturally come to the NDA, and finally went back to support the RJD. That is why we have decided to expose it. The vishwasghaat divas and the campaign against the Rabri Government would take such proportions that both parties would find it difficult to hold on to offi ce.

You seem to be in an aggressive mood.

JP (Jayaprakash Narayan) taught us that people's power is the biggest power. And personally I am committed to concentrating on Bihar now. In the interests of the State, for its larger peace and development, I have decided that I would neither sit peacefu lly nor allow others to sit peacefully.