Strongly dissociating the party from Shivanand’s remarks Sharad, instead put all the blames on Congress for the present economic crisis the counry is facing. Besides, he called for immediate halt to the raging slanging match between the BJP and Janata Dal (United) by stating that both are parts of the National Democratic Alliance.

He also said that Lal Krishna Advani is a natural leader of the BJP and that there is no leader of his stature in the party. By stating so he, in a way, rejected the candidature of Narendra Modi as the prime minister of the country.

The Janata Dal (United) president’s decision to pull up Shivanand Tiwary came as a big surprise because he was not speaking on his own but on the behalf of chief minister Nitish Kumar. Not only he spoke against BJP, but other party leaders were also heard flaying the saffron party. Shivanand only went on to support the economic policy of the ruling UPA. But that was also a part of calculated strategy. By openly associating with the UPA Nitish Kumar has exposed to the world that his anti-Congressism is just a farce.

Political observers are of the view that a section of the Janata Dal (United) leadership realized that the party had ended up as a big loser in this recent squabbling. Nitish not only lost his credibility he went on to unite the BJP. Even Sangh Parivar, which till a few months back, was extremely critical of him on Sanjay Joshi issue, came out supporting Narendra Modi. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat openly asked what is wrong in a Hinduwadi prime minister.

Nitish might have been thinking—as a section of media feel—that Muslims would appreciate his diatribe against Narendra Modi. But what came out was just the opposite. In the last five days a lot of BJP leaders spoke how strongly Nitish supported the BJP in general and Narendra Modi in particular during the 2002 communal riots day in Gujarat. Many Muslims, especially the youths, had forgotten this fact or had little idea about it. Both Hindus and Muslims were reminded of Nitish’s dubious role during Godhra train burning and in subsequent riots.

So the latest retaliatory fire by several BJP leaders destroyed the image of Nitish much more than Banerjee Commission’s interim report. The Commission was constituted by the successor Railway Minister, Lalu Yadav, to probe what actually happened in Godhra and the role of the Railways on Feb 27, 2002. So what the rivals could not do the BJP friends of Nitish did in the last five days.

Political observers are of the view that Nitish committed a monumental bluder by raking up the issue of secularism when it was not the need of the hour. Sharad Yadav perhaps drove the last nail into the coffin by calling for truce. This has further damaged the reputation. After all if the BJP is so bad why not dissociate Janata Dal (United) from it in Bihar and run its own government as the party is comfortably placed with 118 seats. Getting the support of four MLAs in no big deal.