"Play Vande Mataram in front of Nitish Kumar and I bet he will leave the place to remain secular," said a tweet from June, 2013.
Six years later, the scenario is almost the same. On April 25, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the 'Vande Mataram' chant in rally in Bihar's Darbhanga, Kumar was visibly silent and low on enthusiasm.
So much so, that a video has gone viral -- in which Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar can be seen not reacting to PM Modi's call for shouting Vande Mataram into the air. Kumar, in fact, is all silent and is waiting for the chants to get over.
The video is being seen across the social media as a visual, yelling of the dissension within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) -- of which Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) (JDU) is a part.
PM Modi had, earlier in the rally, said: "Chanting Vande Mataram is a responsibility to ensure the peace, prosperity and security of the country. But some people have a problem with this."
The debate over Vande Mataram, the national song, has been revived during the Lok Sabha election campaign.
Nitish Kumar, who has a strong base among Muslim voters, has been silent on the community's reluctance to chant Vande Mataram.
The point to be noted here is Nitish Kumar is yet to release the JDU manifesto, and many have since been speculating a defection -- to the Congress-led UPA fold.
