Last fortnight has been one of Nitish Kumar. He was the most popular masala politician for media. I had been following it with interest. Barkha Dutt of NDTV tried to put the phrase ‘kal kissne dekhaa hai’ on Nitish’s lips. Nitish managed to escape. Media mess continued. Nitish reference to his association with socialism was picked up by the left to woo him. Bengal’s Buddh declared his coming to Left camp, as Naveen had done. I would not have minded if Naveen would have gone alone, but his handshake with leftists will be dangerous for the poor state of Orissa. He and Orissa will have to repent for it if it continues. It may benefit leftists to take over Orissa. Nitish will never make the mistake of aligning with leftists. Rahul, Karat, and the whole lot of leftists kept on giving inviting statement. I was really shocked with the way Rahul had laughed after making a comment on Nitish’s ‘intention’.

Nitish has expressed that he would remain firm to his commitment to Bihar. Perhaps Nitish has been the only politician to tell press that he knows his limitation and can’t think about the job of the prime minister. Besides his humility, Nitish is required in Bihar for Bihar. Nitish must stay back in Bihar and take it ahead in development. Unfortunately, Bihar at present does not have any one else to carry on the task of developing Bihar that is critical for the state. Perhaps as expected with Lalu and Paswan thrown in history’s junkyard, Nitish can take Bihar’s development on fast track.

I liked his maturity in siding with LK Advani on Jinnah issue. Somehow I still consider that Advani has not got what he deserves. In many respect I consider him better material than even Bajpaiji for Prime Minister job.

However, Nitish continues to be the flavour of the season, perhaps will remain till May, 16. But what has happened in Ludhiana has perhaps shocked those who were trying to allure Nitish shamelessly. Unlike a mature prime minister, Manmohan publicly passed his judgment on Nitish, “Nitish Kumar no doubt professes to be secular. But the doubt did arise in my mind when he shook hands with Narendra Modi.” Nitish has replied unhesitatingly, “The PM should not behave like the vice-chancellor of the ‘university of secularism’. “Secularism is a thing of perception and no one should claim a monopoly over it.”

 It can only pride one who has been observing the spineless leaders of Bihar going to any extent to get the favour of Sonia Gandhi.

Let me conclude with Sankarshan Thakur’s report in Telegraph:

No one has ever called Patna a beautiful city,” Dalrymple wrote at the peak of Lalu raj, “but revisiting it I found I had forgotten how bad things were.” The temptation today is to invite him back for a rickshaw trawl through Patna by dark; it’s always been a safe bet, today it’s probably also going to impose a few revisions on Dalrymple’s tale.

Election 2009 has brought Nitish Kumar and Bihar on the national scene for good reasons.