Avoiding Modi

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar continues to remain an ally of the BJP in the NDA, but he is clearly uncomfortable with the party’s hardline Hindutva, especially that associated with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. So he asked the BJP not to send Modi to campaign in Bihar. A journalist asked him whether he would share the dais with Modi in Bihar. Nitish ducked the question smartly, saying, “When the chief minister of Bihar is in front of you, why are you so bothered about the chief minister of Gujarat?”