Nitish Kumar offered Prime Minister Narendra Modi the opportunity to turn the once-prestigious Patna University into a campus entitled to funding from the centre. The Prime Minister passed. An audience of nearly 5,000 witnessed the exchange. And unsubtly, the Bihar Chief Minister was put in his place -again - by his new boss.

It was the Olympic Gold of political somersaults and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar seemed to manage a perfect landing right next to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for years his main rival.

When Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar this year, he said he was accepting responsibility for his party's humiliating result in the national election. The 63-year-old's Janata Dal United or JDU won just two of the state's 40 parliamentary seats. Mr Kumar picked as his successor Jitan Ram Manjhi, 72, a decision he must kick himself fo...