Patna,(BiharTimes): Though the Nitish Kumar government is likely to win the March 11 trust vote on the floor of the state Assembly, its decision to revoke the 34 cabinet decisions taken by the then Jitan Ram Manjhi government at its fag end is being questioned by several independent Bihar watchers.

Whatever be the compulsion of Nitish Kumar, the truth is that the decision was taken on the eve of Holi and about a week ahead of seeking trust votes. There is no doubt that most of the decisions taken by the Manjhi government were populist in nature, but once taken it is quite difficult to cancel them as they involves the policemen, homeguards and Vikas Mitras. The policemen have already gone on warpath and so would the others.

Nitish may argue that they were all taken in hurry without following the regular procedures and that the state might not be in position to financially fulfil all the demands of all the employees. But no less equally strong is Manjhi’s charge that the Nitish Kumar government had spent hundreds of crores on lavish spending and pomp and show which had little to do with the development of Bihar. So if a thousand of crores can be spent in building Bihar Museum, less than a kilometre from the Patna Museum, and a huge Conventional Centre just a stone’s throw distance away from Shri Krishna Memorial Hall, why cannot the employees’ demand be fulfilled?

What is strange is that though Manjhi has raised these issues, the BJP, which had been finding all sorts of fault with Nitish Kumar, never did so. The saffron party cannot do so now as in that case it would be said that it is following Manjhi’s footstep.

Incidentally, work for all such mega-projects, including the construction of Buddha Smriti Park, started when the BJP was very much in power. So it does not want to flay the government as the political rivals would say that it was a party to this extravaganza.But then Manjhi too was a minister then. He raised the issue when he got an opportunity and came to know about the whole fact.

The problem with Nitish is that the recent decision of his cabinet to annul the 34 decisions of the Manjhi government did not find favour even with the new found friend, the RJD. Its spokesman, Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, urged Nitish to reconsider some of the decisions as they were in the interest of the poor.

Senior RJD leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had repeatedly asked Nitish to make Manjhi his deputy. Lalu Prasad himself is silent on the issue.When all these developments are going on the BJP is maintaining a sort of silence. Perhaps it is redrawing its strategy. After all its tall claims, made repeatedly by its senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi that 50-plus JD(U) MLAs are in touch had got exposed.