There is no let-up in Nitish Kumar’s problems in his new term as chief minister. A steady rise in the crime graph ever since he won a hard-fought election in November has been giving sleepless nights to the state administration. Nitish has asked the top police brass to pull up their socks, but to no avail.
It is an unhappy period for the JD(U) stalwart, whose record in curbing crime in a once-lawless state has been his USP in his three previous terms. During the 15-year combined tenure of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi, between 1990 and 2005, law and order had plummeted to such an extent that it had once prompted the Patna High Court to compare the lawlessness to ‘jungle raj’,
The remarks on rampant lawlessness turned out to be the biggest weapon for the Opposition, enabling them to trounce the Rashtriya Janata Dal in successive polls. As NDA leader, Nitish took up the issue vigorously to wrest power from the RJD in 2005. As CM, he managed to restore the rule of law. But now, his copybook is being stained irrevocably.
On January 12, Rupesh...
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