Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) President Nitish Kumar’s inner voice—which led him to set aside the mandate given by the people of Bihar in 2015 assembly elections to the RJD-JDU-Congress Mahagathbandhan—seems to have either stopped working, or he is not listening to it anymore.

Nitish Kumar has remained conspicuoudly silent as his new-found allies in the BJP freely spew communal venom after their loss in the Araria Lok Sabha bypoll.

As it became clear on Wednesday, March 14 that the Bharatiya Janata Party was heading for a defeat at the hands of the Rashtriya Dal candidate in Araria, Bihar’s BJP Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi put out a patently communal tweet. Modi said that minority votes in two minority-dominated assembly segments in Araria enabled RJD’s Sarfaraz Alam to win.