Nitish Kumar Koh Gussa Kyon Aata Hai?

Karnataka Police has arrested a suspected terrorist from village in Bihar's Darbhanga District for a blast that took place outside Bangalore's Chinnaswamy Stadium two years ago. Apparently they did so without informing the Bihar officials. Sort of like the US swooping into Pakistan and killing Bin Laden. It seems that this has upset Nitish Kumar greatly. I wanted to throw your way a few thoughts on why he is angry and who is really responsible.

First of all, any decision to go after any high profile criminal or a terrorist (especially a Muslim) has to be taken by a group which probably has an IAS and an IPS officer along with the blessings of a politician. None of these are the kind to put their careers on the line for national security. So this decision must have been made with with prudence and calmly. The fact that they did not inform Bihar authorities about this has serious implications. The biggest is that they did not trust the Bihar Police or the politicians. What makes it worse is that Karnataka is ruled by the BJP and in Bihar they are the junior partners to JD(U) which is why one would expect the Karnataka police and politicians to treat even more gently because they would not want their partner government to look bad.

Is it this display of mistrust that has upset Nitish Kumar greatly?

Is it because Nitish Kumar thinks that the sovereignty of his government was violated?

Is it because the integrity of his government was in question?

Is it that the terrorist turned out to be a Muslim who seem to be getting a satin glove treatment under Nitish Kumar?

Or is it because this is one more evidence that Nitish Kumar’s love for Muslim votes is causing him to turn a blind eye towards the rapid rise of Bihar as an Islamic terror hotbed?

If the Karnataka government did not trust their ilk in Bihar, then who can question them? To them getting the suspect was more important than ruffled Bihari feathers. What is obvious is that whatever the reason for Nitish Kumar’s anger maybe, he has a huge problem. India is a soft state in dealing with terrorism. It would seem that Bihar is softer. That is a trend initiated by Nitish’s predecessors who were the worst of votebank politicians. Nitish Kumar needs to take strong steps to deal with this issue. I am happy that beyond his first reaction, he has not escalated this issue. If only he could use the same judiciousness in dealing with the real problem.

We have highlighted this problem on our blog before. You can read that article at: http://thenethindu.blogspot.com/2011/12/nitish-kumar-votes-vs-islamic-terrorism.html
The article on the arrest of the terror suspect can be read at: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/nitish-fumes-as-ktaka-police-arrest-terror-suspect-in-bihar/255962-37-64.html