Bihar beckons

Two thousand and ten will go down in the annals of history as a watershed year. Just at a moment when India was making rapid strides towards registering a resolute presence on the global landscape through the Common Wealth Games, she was confronted with disgusting revelations of corruptions by those who were entrusted to carry out this humongous task. Just when people had reconciled to the reality of coalition politics and were looking ahead with excitement at the pace of reforms in many sectors, they were splashed with murky details of deals in allotment of 2G spectrum in the telecom sector. Just when the US President visiting us had made numerous mention of the growing prowess of India giving much-needed boost to her global identity, she was at pains to resolve the dilemma of a corrupt bureaucracy driving development!

The year was a tumultuous one, and amid all the grim shades of corruption and scandals, there was one thread which was beginning to weave a new canvas of change. This was the year when a new Bihar was born.  The state which had become synonymous with the leader of the so-called Bimaru states, was beginning to take a giant leap forward by declaring caste dead. At a time when politics and politicians were at its lowest ebb in modern Indian history – with even the hallowed office of the Prime Minister of the country pulled into controversies – there was one politician who stood firm in his resolve to rinse politics of corruption, and proudly reclaimed the decades-old lost glory of Bihar.

Nitish Kumar symbolizes much more than making a magical turnaround of the Bihari psyche, which for ages have been stuck with primordial ideas and ideologies. In his first five years of governance Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been able to simultaneously trigger many silent revolutions, many of which becomes comprehensible now, after the resounding mandate for his second term.

For a generation which has grappled with appalling absence of governance, Nitish Kumar has shown there is light. Today governance is visible and it exists, as an institution, as a reality. For a generation which has lived with fear and farce, Nitish Kumar has redeemed self-pride, dignity. For a generation, which has rued the dreadful absence of law, and chaos in name of order, Nitish Kumar has brought back the notion of the State, government. Among women, Nitish Kumar has infused a new sense of identity and empowerment and today they have begun speaking a language of assertion. The lower strata of the society – riddled for ages by the curse of obscurity and oppression – the rule of law has meant historic empowerment. State has begun working for them and development has begun to have a brush at them. For the first time in the history of Bihar, caste has taken a backseat and people have shunned their age-old political loyalties based on this. Development has seemingly ruptured the solid canopy of caste and creed.

For skeptics who would have slammed all these as prolific paeans of sycophancy and arm-chair articulation, the historic 2010 verdict serve as a slap.

The many silent revolutions of Bihar – the true Sampoorna Kranti, for which Jayaprakash Narayan had given a clarion call from Patna’s Gandhi Maidan four decades ago – has meant a new awakening for Bihar.


Time to act!