Faux Chanakyas, artificially constructed by sycophants within the media and the social gathering, ought to rigorously select what they are saying on this battlefield.
Makes an attempt to look intelligent normally look silly. No person understands this higher than a politician who’s organically shrewd. And who matches the invoice of being organically shrewd greater than Nitish Kumar? Among the many uncommon species within the political realm, he’s the one one who will be made the chief minister by each the ruling and the opposition alliances. And he has been this intelligent for many years.
Faux Chanakyas, artificially constructed by sycophants within the media and the social gathering, ought to rigorously select what they are saying on this battlefield. The actual Chanakya will anyway know the distinction between a greenhorn like Eknath Shinde and seasoned participant like Nitish Kumar. Nitish Kumar’s makes an attempt to look gullible don’t imply he’s not intelligent. Historical past tells the world, and Amit Shah, that Nitish doesn’t want TV anchors to promote his masterstrokes. Victims of his quiet, delicate masterstrokes lie scattered throughout the nation – from Lalu Yadav to Rahul Gandhi, and from the late George Fernandes to Narendra Modi. Echoes of this enigmatic political truism will need to have reached Gujarat: elections in Bihar too are held to resolve who would be the Chief of Opposition, not the chief minister. The crown is reserved for the somersault specialist of Indian political sport.
Amit Shah may need bitten off greater than he might chew by evolving an express technique of conserving Nitish on the tenterhooks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi refused to announce his title as the subsequent chief minister when he uttered this slogan: “Nai raftaar se chalega Bihar/Fir aayegi NDA sarkar (Bihar will transfer at a brand new tempo now/the NDA authorities will return).” It is a radical shift from “Bihar mein bahaar hai/Nitishe Kumar hai (It is spring in Bihar/Right here comes Nitish Kumar).” The BJP, which most popular a Modi-centric marketing campaign within the parliamentary election, is clearly averse to projecting Nitish’s management. They presume that the wily chief minister had been fully introduced underneath management with the assistance of BJP brokers within the Janata Dal (United); and the enervated warrior was no extra ready to hit again. Political grapevine contests this presumption, insisting that Nitish Kumar was able to defending his crown regardless of bodily frailties. He’ll demolish all ploys of putting in a brand new chief minister by leveraging his intimacy with Lalu Yadav. Put up-poll choices could also be delinked from pre-poll acrobatics.
The technique to take away Nitish will work provided that an alternate authorities – JD(U) changing into part of a Rashtriya Janata Dal-led alliance – just isn’t potential. Neither the RJD, nor the JD(U), are making vicious assaults on one another. The tenor of the JD(U) marketing campaign is solely totally different from the BJP’s strident “jungle-raj” narrative.
Nitish has an added benefit this time, his crucial prop to Modi on the Union authorities. It’s unlikely that the BJP will danger a disruption at this stage. All this calculations will come into play provided that Tejashwi Yadav once more fails to cross the bulk mark. Floor actuality suggests it’s a tricky competitors, made harder because the Congress has once more tousled the ticket distribution train. How the marketing campaign unfolds would be the key to success.
Hole rhetoric
Who likes to reside in a idiot’s paradise? Troublesome to reply. However the prime minister should not dream of an India the place fools overlook their wretched existence on the faint hope of a paradise. Life, in spite of everything, is pushed by actuality, not desires.
“Quick-moving Vande Bharat trains now run in Bihar,” Narendra Modi proudly stated whereas addressing a rally on the afternoon of October 24 in Samastipur. Pace thrills, the little fowl advised us. Haven’t the trains of Japan and China, working at 350 km per hour, fascinated us? However does Vande Bharat, barely touching 130 km per hour, instil any sense of delight into Indians?
Effectively, information have to be spiced up with fiction if they aren’t tantalising sufficient. The prime minister hastened so as to add: “The day just isn’t far when each district of Bihar may have startup firms owned by its youth.” That drew some applause from the group that has learnt to reside with the hoax of Rs 15 lakh gushing into everyone’s account.
On this picture launched on Oct. 24, 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public assembly forward of the Bihar Meeting elections, in Begusarai district. Picture: PTI.
I hope the valiant prime minister of three phrases, itching to interrupt Jawaharlal Nehru’s observe document, succeeded in explaining the developments Bihar had witnessed within the final 20 years. If there was any hint of doubt, Modi delivered extra tempting particulars on a platter. “The tea-seller has ensured 1 GB knowledge doesn’t price greater than a cup of tea! The glut of reels being made in Bihar exhibits the creativity of the youth.”
Fantastic! Doubting Thomases can fall asleep now. Time for celebration, nay, some drama.
Modi requested folks to change on the torch of their cell phones. He declared: “Jab itni mild hai to lalten chahiye kya (When there are such a lot of lights, do we actually want the lantern)?” The punchline was delivered in type. The lantern, the image of the primary challenger RJD, needs to be discarded if telephones include an inbuilt torch. What extra political foresight and imaginative and prescient would you like? This time, no bhains, no mangalsutra, no mujra. Political scientists and pretenders shall rejoice, showering praises on the highly effective oratory.
However the prime minister was in a sober temper. He even lamented the acerbic metaphors his opponents had been utilizing within the marketing campaign, saying that they’ve began talking of pellets, pistols, double barrel weapons and kidnappings. Very dangerous. Be taught from the BJP leaders’ decency. “Suna hai bole to baaton se phool jhadte hain (I’ve heard that while you communicate, flowers fall out of your phrases),” as the good poet Ahmad Faraz wrote.
Phrases are certainly falling softly like flower petals. BJP president J.P. Nadda, as an example, said: “R means Rangdari. J means Jungle raj. D means Dadagiri. RJD means criminality, destruction and mis-governance.”
That’s the BJP’s defend in opposition to anti-incumbency. Modi has insisted that the “jungle-raj” gained’t be forgotten for 100 years. The discourse shall stay frozen. Chants of “jungle-raj” supply insurance coverage in opposition to accountability of the incumbent authorities. Don’t pay heed to the fiction that Bihar is crying for jobs, and different fundamental facilities like training and healthcare.
Benefit from the pace of bullet trains. Sorry, that’s for Gujarat.
Industries? For Gujarat.
You bought the Vande Bharat. Journey and pace up the exodus.
Media and its deceit
Screams for survival should not be taken as songs of penance. Many discuss of honesty in desperation to mislead. It’s not a quest for redemption; it is merely a brand new enterprise of deceit.
One of many protagonists of immediately’s mainstream media has generated a lot curiosity by arguing that persons are not watching information channels as a result of their core issues are usually not mirrored in studies and debates. Harmless observers wonder if the routine offender has undergone a change of coronary heart. No. This was a devious ploy to minimize the enormity of their crime. Such characters, who’ve inflicted essentially the most grievous accidents on Indian journalism, now need to create an impression that it’s elite media homes who’ve typically ignored the issues of the plenty, and targeted on politicking, intrigues and bogus controversies. It’s recognized that usually, not even 1% of news items printed or shown in a day cover rural issues. And when the agricultural areas do make it to the information, the bulk is expounded to pure calamity, crimes and unnatural deaths. Even rains and visitors jams in Delhi or Mumbai get a lot larger prominence than critical agrarian misery or humanitarian crises in villages. However that isn’t the rationale for the unprecedented disenchantment of individuals, irrespective of sophistication and creed, with mainstream media.
Individuals don’t watch information channels as a result of they’ve smothered journalistic ethics and have become brutal brokers of energy. Individuals don’t watch information channels as a result of editors and anchors suppress reality and propagate the federal government agenda. Individuals don’t watch information channels as a result of they spit venom, perpetually dividing society on spiritual traces and whip up passions as a substitute of performing as unifiers. Individuals don’t watch TV channels as a result of constitutional rules are callously trampled upon with the only goal of fortifying the rulers’ curiosity. Their alternative of topics and arguments fall within the class of ethical turpitude and mental chapter. Individuals clearly don’t need to digest sermons from these accused of extortion and blackmail.
What’s tragic for the nation is that this perverse media enjoys the federal government’s patronage. The media the place equality and justice are usually not the tenet, the media which doesn’t worth reality and morality is doomed to help the destruction of the nation and society. Terror outfits have very restricted influence and harm potential. In addition they face stringent legal guidelines and the ferocious energy of the state. However the media can unfold the poison of hate to a a lot bigger viewers each day with out fearing the coercive parts of law-enforcing businesses. Individuals who don’t just like the media to behave like a partner-in-crime have abandoned information channels. They’re looking for safer sources of data. Little surprise, information portals and Youtube channels are attracting hundreds of thousands of viewers and luxuriate in a lot larger credibility than the media which introduced “400 par” because the fait accompli in 2024 normal election.
Sanjay Ok. Jha is a political commentator.
This text went reside on October twenty-sixth, two thousand twenty 5, at zero minutes previous ten within the morning.
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