Eight hundred and forty-five years ago, Henry II of England, chafing un­der a long and abrading rivalry with Thomas Becket, his former friend and the Archbishop of Canterbury, fi­nally burst out in anger: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” 

Four of Henry’s courtiers rushed out, accosted the archbishop in his cathedral, and cut him to death with their swords. His ‘martyrdom’ earned Becket a sainthood from the Catholic church. 

History tells us that courtiers and followers take the cue from their monarch or leader, and each one vies to prove that he or she is more loyal than everybody else. Power, and proximity to power, can blind and deafen us. 

There is a moral here for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as for Nitish Kumar, who is going to be sworn in for a third term as Bihar’s chief minister on Friday. Both men were elected to power because they swore they would focus on good gov­ernance and development. Both men have slid into the trap of identity poli­tics. And both men need to be careful of the messages they send out. 

Modi has just returned from a tri­umphant visit to Britain. Diversity is India’s strength and pride, he told 60,000 rapturous Indian Brits packed into London’s cavernous Wembley stadium. His speech was overshad­owed by the terrorist attacks in Paris. 

Modi, who has not called a single press conference in India in his 18 months in power, had to face one in London, and was forced to answer a question on intolerance back home. 

It was significant that the high-deci­bel, provocative things being said by Hindu hardliners here died away to a whisper the moment the Bihar elec­tion results were announced in November 8. But that does not ab­solve Modi of the need to speak out against bigotry as forcefully as he has spoken out against international ter­rorism in Britain and then at the G20 summit in Turkey 

There is little doubt that Modi is pas­sionate about his reform agenda. A couple of days before the Bihar re­sults, he spoke feelingly at the Delhi Economics Conclave. After noting that India’s economy was doing rela­tively better than the rest of the world, with a stable currency falling inflation, and a lower current-ac­count deficit, Modi said reform was not an end. “Reform for me, is just a way station on the long jour­ney to the destination. The destina­tion is transformation of India. 

Therefore, REFORM TO TRANSFORM. And reforming to transform, is a marathon, not a sprint,” he said. 

A senior official who was listening to Modi remembered sitting one seat behind him on a flight from Delhi to Ahmedabad in 2007 when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat. Unlike other politicians, who are mobbed by fawning favour-seekers, Modi sat mo­tionless and silent throughout the journey, the official remembers. He transmitted “do not try to approach me” vibrations. 

What does this have to do with the company Modi keeps? He needs to keep the ideologues and Hindu fire­brands in his vast encampment at arm’s length; indeed, he needs to ban­ish them to a nether world. At the same time, he needs to grow the number of implementers around him if he truly wants to transform India. There are three imperatives for the remaining three and a half years of his term: strategy, politics and implementation. Even if he can sort out the first two, the third is a huge challenge. 

Four of Modi’s most effective minis­ters — Arun Jaitley, Suresh Prabhu, Piyush Goyal and Nirmala Sitharaman — are all unelected mem­bers of the Rajya Sabha. There have been strong rumours that Modi will soon reshuffle his cabinet. This is his chance to bring in more technocrats, more achievers who will help cement his economic agenda. 

Unfazed by the Bihar loss, Modi threw open the gates to foreign direct investment in 15 sectors before he left for London. Prabhu announced two huge locomotive orders to General Electric and Alstom which had been pending for a decade. Modi himself sealed 9 billion GBP of new deals in Britain. A new bankruptcy code was laid out. Jaitley said he was confi­dent the Goods and Services Tax would finally get through parlia­ment. The wheels were spinning.

Nitish, who defied predictions of anti-incumbency and an army of pollsters to return to power in Bihar, has no time to lose either. He can point to many achievements over the past decade. Literacy rose hand­somely, fewer children stayed out of school, roads and bridges were built, electricity reached more homes, and women were guaranteed half of local panchayat posts. But social scientist Shaibal Gupta says that the differ­ence this time is that Nitish, who was judged earlier by the climb out of the dark age before him, will be com­pared with his own record over the past decade. 

Here again, it will not be made easi­er by the shadow of Lalu Prasad. It is worth remembering that Lalu is out on bail since December 2013 after serving only two months of a five-year sentence on his conviction in a corruption scandal. Lalu cannot forget either that Rahul Gandhi made sure he was not let off when two years ago he tore up an ordinance that would have gifted Lalu a Get Out of Jail Free pass. 

So, the wily Lalu will have to co-habit with one man who drove him out of power a decade ago in a crusade against his chaotic rule, and another who made sure he could not stand again for election. The fact that the disgraced Lalu’s party won more seats (80) than Nitish’s (71) or Gandhi’s revived Congress (27) only makes his revenge that much sweeter. 

Most Bihar-watchers agree that Lalu will bide his time because he wants both his sons, Tej Pratap and Tejashwi, to work under Nitish’s tu­telage and be groomed for future power. Both young men won easy vic­tories in the elections. 

We started this column with a his­torical tale. It will be fitting to end it with a fable. In this telling, Nitish is the King Vikram of Bihar, carrying Betal the ghost on his back. For those of us who do not remember this en­grossing set of 25 stories from the 11th century, King Vikram had to try and capture the cunning ghost for a sorcerer; every night the ghost, rid­ing on his back, would narrate one story with a moral riddle at the end. A wrong answer would burst the king’s head; a correct answer sent the ghost fleeing back to the tree it inhab­ited. Throughout his third term, Nitish Kumar will have to carry the ghost of Lalu’s moral riddle on his back. Can he answer it correctly? 

Share this story