Patna: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday was a proud witness to more than 75,000 people simultaneously waving the Indian national flag at this semi-urban town in Bihar, where the BJP sought to make history by breaking Pakistan's record set 18 years ago. The occasion was the 164th death anniversary of Veer Kunwar Singh, the then King of Jagdishpur who is regarded as one of the heroes of the Revolt of 1857. The event was organized as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav', the 75th anniversary of India's Independence.
Shah was joined by top BJP leaders from Bihar, including Union ministers R K Singh and Nityanand Rai, Deputy Chief Ministers Tarkishor Prasad, and Renu Devi and their predecessor Sushil Kumar Modi in waving the tricolor for full five minutes, to an instrumental rendition of the national song 'Vande Mataram'. The attendees were made to wear bands for physical identification and a camera trap was installed, with the Guinness Book of World Records for supervision.
Born in Jagdishpur village, Kunwar Singh was an expert in guerilla warfare and left the Britishers puzzled with his bravery. The crowds applauded when the gigantic screen installed at the venue put the headcount of flag-wavers at 77,700.
Apart from hailing the Veer Kunwar Singh, Shah also used the big occasion to attack his political rival and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and termed his regime as 'Jungle Raj'. Just a day before, BJP's alliance partner and Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar visited the residence of Lalu on Friday to attend the Iftar party hosted by Tejashwi Yadav.
“If RJD thinks that by avoiding Lalu Prasad photo, people will forget Jungle Raj. No way. It is not going to happen because people still remember the bad old days under RJD. Bihar witnessed development only after NDA came to power led by Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi. It was the NDA government that transformed Bihar from a 'Bimaru' state to a developed one. Our government has done a lot of work apart from receiving a special package from Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Shah reminded.
While BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal said that through this event, they want to make the young generation know about the sacrifices of the Indian freedom fighters like Babu Veer Kunwar Singh. In fact, the entire BJP unit put all its efforts to make this event a grand success and proving a point to Amit Shah.
In contrast, its alliance partner JDU maintained a low profile and did not individually plan a massive event. According to a JDU insider, it was on the behest of Nitish Kumar, the JDU did not organize any big events to avoid comparisons. “Whenever such programs are organized by two political parties, the media compares in terms of the number of people who attended it. To avoid such stuff, we were asked to slow down," a JDU functionary told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity.
Whereas the event was more important for the BJP to impress the Rajput voters, say, experts, "With an aim to woo the upper caste voters namely Rajputs who didn't have proper representation in the BJP in recent past. Through the Jayanti, the BJP also wanted to project Nityanand Rai as the CM candidate to replace Nitish but the political move by Nitish on Friday to get closer to RJD has stumped BJP plans. It was bound to happen after the statement of Tej Pratap Yadav who claimed that he had a secret meeting with Nitish during the Iftar and something was going to happen soon in Bihar. That could be the reason, the BJP restricted the event to Veer Kunwar Singh instead of diverting it to other issues," added experts.
Despite Nitish claiming that the Iftar party should not be seen through a political prism and saying, "I just went there even without an invite," to downplay political speculations.
In fact, Nitish had a very uncomfortable relationship with the BJP ever since NDA formed the government in Bihar. Nitish got support on this front when his long-time partner Sushil Modi broke his silence after a long time of raising questions about the BJP after the saffron party lost against RJD in the Bochaha by-poll recently.
Summing up the political developments, Patna-based political expert Dr. Sanjay Kumar said that Nitish understood the plan of the BJP and played his cards well. "Nitish Kumar has played his card as a matured politician since he already read the minds of BJP leaders. Visiting Lalu's house on the eve of Amit Shah's Bihar visit is a well-thought-out plan. Before BJP could rock his apple cart, Nitish dented the game plan of the saffron party by moving closer to RJD. Nitish has sent a loud and clear message to BJP that if they plan to remove him by any means, he already has an option to form the government with RJD. Nitish is called Chanakya of Bihar politics for no reason," said Sanjay.
