‘I’m going to enjoy what I’ve got as long as it lasts.’ This is how Patricia Highsmith describes career criminal Tom Ripley’s outlook to life in her novel, The Talented Mr Ripley. Sunday morning ex-Bihar chief minister, who by the evening was chief minister again, Nitish Kumar is no Ripley-like con artist. But he sure has talent. Becoming CM for the ninth time, and swapping political brands a whopping five times, Kumar is as nimble-footed as the feetless eel. For those who are still old-fashioned enough to believe in silly things like ideology – or Amit Shah, when he had said a year ago that ‘the doors are shut’ for Kumar after he decamped the NDA tent to join the RJD-Congress camp – the Talented Mr Kumar has shown that doors can be revolutionary, in the revolving sense.
While pundits must tender the JD(U) leader a slow clap for his sheer chutzpah – switching camps so many times does bring the very notion of ‘camps’ under the scanner – it brings unalloyed confusion to the voter. When anyone votes for Kumar’s party, who will she or he be voting for? Till yesterday, it was for those opposed to BJP. Then, it became for those supportive of BJP. On the day of voting, things may well switch again. ‘Something always turned up. That was Tom’s philosophy,’ wrote Highsmith of her anti-hero. It seems that it’s the same for BJP’s anti-anti-hero.
