The great Bihari brouhaha

It’s been more than a week of brouhaha over the Bihari vs MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena) syndrome. It’s heartening to see Biharis of all hues – reticent to remote, adventurous to astute, feeble to fiery – joining the vote-bank chorus raised by politicians of all ideologies. They all have a viewpoint today and so it is so nice. Having taken a contrarian view – which according to some would even fetch me a coveted job with MNS – I have been at the forefront of brickbats from my Bihari fellows. I wish to reiterate I have been trained, first as a sociologist and then as a journalist to take a considered views on issues and I stand by every bit of what I said when I wrote my last blog piece. (My last post can be accessed at: http://navneet-anand.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-am-bihari-but-i-like-raj-thackeray.html) I make yet another attempt at slamming Bihar, the phenomenon, today. Seeing the sorry cry for Bihar which has emanated from all parts of the globe – I read today a Bihari-led NRI group Humane Mumbai in the US has urged US Department of State to put MNS on the "list of terrorist organisations which are out to hurt the humanity" – I am compelled to think how Biharis have been following the agenda set out by Raj Thackeray: of accruing to him as much publicity as possible. Our reckless Yadavas, Kumars and Paswans have been chanting nothing but MNS for past many days. Many of my dear friends have exhibited a kind of hollow smugness by glorifying ‘Bihari pride’ in their Gmail status marks and sending stale forward mails, while some have resorted to spiel of abuses to vent out their frustration. I agree not all can be made to think alike and think different, as I claim I do, but then I think this is quite a predominant personality trait of many Biharis. They are good at following and emulating, not leading from the front. Mahatma Gandhi perhaps knew this well and this was the reason he chose Bihar to launch his Satyagraha – he had ready made followers. A not so relevant Bihari leader the other day claimed Biharis have led since the time of Gandhi; I wish to inform this gentleman it was a Gujarati who was leading and Biharis were obedient followers. Decades have gone by but we have clung on to this trait of ours: ardent followers. So mired we have become with archaic politics and mindsets that we have lost the reason to think afresh, think anew, to lead. We are born followers. We have lost the ability to reason, to steer, be it a change or even a dialogue for a change. We are more worried about what Thackerays tell about us little realizing that in the process they are achieving the desired goals that they had set out when they took up the issue. I don’t remember when was the last time we in Bihar kick-started a national debate on a compelling national issue, became role models of progress and development. Some of our leaders have certainly become comic role models and while some others claim to have begun taking Bihar out of the Halloween era and pull it on path of prosperity. I’m afraid they need to pull up their socks a bit harder and learn a trick or two from the likes of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who usher in visible progress within matters of hours – there is an under-construction bridge in Bihar’s capital Patna which seems to be under under-construction forever! They call it a change; I call it a self-defeating belief. Every time I go back to Bihar I find the same apathy, same filth, similar hostility among people, equal sense of unease over law and order. But then we relish in the fact that we are among the top rankers in the coveted civil services, IITs, after Bengalis Biharis too are beginning to make a cartel in journalism, we excel in many other professional fields and we have a large enough population share to affect neighbourhood politics in many parts of the country. Times may have changed but not Bihar and Biharis. I am no exception. I am still happy for Raj Thackeray.