Special package to be fast-tracked: Ravi Shankar Prasad

What made Nitish dump Lalu?

You are talking of two years of togetherness but not recalling a period of nearly 18 years when they were separate. Nitish split with Lalu on the issues of corruption and non-governance.

But Nitish did leave BJP…

He left us for reasons that are well known. I won’t dwell into those. Let the past be past. However, Nitish understood that whatever change Bihar could experience was when he was with us. He was an antagonist to Mr Modi at one point in time in 2013 and again in 2014. Yes, he was. But now, there has been a tectonic shift in the polity of India. Mr Modi today is a towering leader, reshaping the destiny of India. The BJP is a much bigger party now. The whole ground rule of India’s politics has also changed.

What about thorny issues like Uniform Civil Code, Ram Janmabhoomi and Article 370?

When he was with us earlier, these were the part of our (BJP’s) manifesto. What is important is that Nitish Kumar knows our DNA. We are not new players, we have played long innings together.

Do you see Bihar’s development as the end of the so-called secular politics?

I would like to put it …read more