The Bhartiya Janata Party is experimenting with the aggressive Hindutva agenda in the Mahagathbandhan-ruled Bihar, in the manner it has done in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, keeping its eyes on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

With Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar working with a coalition of seven parties and focusing on his “growth with justice” plank that focuses on employment, health, education and social harmony, and most importantly the ongoing caste survey in the state, the saffron party has few options against the Mahagathbandhan.

The kind of violence that occurred mainly at Bihar Sharif and Sasaram – headquarters of the Nalanda and Rohtas districts, respectively – was somewhat unusual for Bihar. It happened on the trails of the Ram Navami processions exactly at the places where Union home minister Amit Shah was scheduled to address public rallies on April 2.

The sequence of events and the manner in which they happened caught the state administration off guard. Though the administration managed to control the situation at Sasaram, it failed to do so at Bihar Sharif because it was ill prepared for the Hindutva militants’ strike on the 113-year-old Azizia Madrasa and its library, set up by Bibi Soghra, a philanthropist and widow of the 1857 war of independence hero Moulvi Abdul Aziz.

The investigation team of the CPI(ML)-Liberation has found that a mob of unidentified Hindutva vandals armed with petrol bombs, swords and hatchets suddenly attacked the historic madrasa, setting it on fire on March 31. Whether due to laxity or unpreparedness, the police reacted late. They reached the site when the library containing rare books and manuscripts was beyond redemption. The attack was unprovoked. Describing it as a communal clash is downright wrong; it was a “one-sided and orchestrated attack” on the madrasa and its library, as explained by the CPI(ML)-Liberation’s team led by party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya to Nitish.

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Even as the police and paramilitary forces had a harrowing time controlling the situation at Bihar Sharif, and the area remained tense, Union home minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting at Hisua in neighbouring Nawada district, barely 40 km from where the madrasa was burnt, on April 2. He neither appealed for peace nor suggested that the administration take appropriate action. Rather, he broke into anti-minority rhetoric, calling upon the people to give all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state to the BJP in the 2024 polls.

“Nitish or Lalu ke tustikaran ke chalta Sasaram or Nalanda mein aag lagi hui hai. Hamari sarkar purna bahumat se banegi to ham dangaiyon ko ulta latka dengein (Sasaran and Nalanda are in flames because of Nitish and Lalu’s appeasement. If we form our government with a full majority, we will hang the rioters upside down),” Shah said at Hisua.

Smashing federal protocol, Shah style

Ahead of delivering what is being described as an incendiary speech, Shah spoke to Governor R.V. Arlekar. As a home minister, he was supposed to speak to the chief minister and also the government machinery comprising administrative and police brass, if required.

“But Shah wantonly disregarded the protocol that he was supposed to observe as the Union home minister,” Janata Dal (United) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar said. Later, Nitish too asked angrily, “Do they know anything about the Constitution? Do they know what the federal structure is all about? For how long are they in politics?”

The chief minister, who is privy to the investigations into the Bihar Sharif and Sasaram violence, strongly hinted that the violence was well orchestrated and pre-planned. “It smacks of conspiracy. The state never witnessed the kind of incidents it did during the Ram Navami festival. Police are investigating…the offenders will be brought to justice, whosoever they are. They won’t be spared.”

Evidence of Hindutva operatives masterminding the riots is beginning to reveal itself with the arrest of one Sumit Shaw from Munger in connection with the violence in West Bengal. Shaw, according to the investigators, has confessed that he was a Bajrang Dal-BJP worker and was in the mob brandishing swords and spears on Howrah streets during the violence.

There was a method to the madness in Bihar. The mob mainly consisting of 17- to 18-year-old boys – all waving long and sharp swords and spears in the air – made the terrifying cry of “Jai Shri Ram”. The cry became shriller as they passed through mosques, madrasas or Muslim localities. And when the minority community’s members tried to calm them down or resisted, the mob complained about their “victimisation”.

BJP members routinely stormed into the well of the Bihar assembly, shouting about “appeasement of the minorities”, during the budget session that ended on April 5. BJP’s leader of opposition in the House, Vijay Kumar Sinha, led his MLAs in creating a ruckus on the “victimisation of Hindus”. They also alleged that a large number of Hindus had “fled their homes in Sasaram and Nalanda because of the fear of the rioters” – a claim which the police have found to be baseless.

BJP’s three-pronged strategy

This was Shah’s fourth visit to Bihar in the last seven months, since Nitish joined the Mahagathbandhan. He is believed to have fine-tuned a three-pronged strategy for his party to succeed against the Mahagathbandhan.

First, the saffron party will pursue an aggressive Hindutva in Bihar on the lines of what it has done in Uttar Pradesh. However, this strategy has numerous limitations. For instance, the BJP succeeded in roping in a good number of the OBC castes in UP. With the Adityanath government in the saddle for over six years now, the party has consolidated its support base among several non-Yadav OBC groups. Moreover, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samajwadi Party has largely has lost its non-Jatav Dalit vote base to the BJP, particularly in western and central UP.

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The situation is different in Bihar, with Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish enjoying the overwhelming support of OBCs, EBCs and Dalits.

Secondly, the BJP has resorted to the brazen misuse of investigating agencies against Lalu’s family. Ever since Nitish has joined the Mahagathbandhan, the central agencies have been going after Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu and their family members. BJP strategists talk about Tejaswhi’s arrest before the 2024 elections in private conversations.

And thirdly, they will play up the “no alternative to Narendra Modi” card for the 2024 elections.

Nalin Verma is a senior journalist, media educator and independent researcher in social anthropology