Nitish Kumar who is credited with giving an identity to the Biharis in recent times ironically has fallen out of grace but it is indeed a dichotomy that he still continues to be the benign hope for BJP to retain the power. Incidentally Bihar is the only state in Hindi heartland where BJP has miserably failed to have a comfortable majority and come to power on its own.
Incongruity of the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah had resurfaced in the form of senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey coming out with “personal” opinion that Nitish Kumar should be made the Deputy Prime Minister. People aware of the Gujarati duo known it well that no BJP leader can dare to express his opinion, that is too in public domain. Obviously Choubey must have the tacit approval and it was a mechanism to judge the people’s and BJP leaders’ mood and response.
Choubey poured goody-goody platitudes. While he said Nitish Kumar will be the Deputy PM from Bihar, after Jagjivan Ram, he also glorified his role in strengthening the hands of Narendra Modi by playing the role of an anchor in the coalition. Choubey’s eulogy is widely perceived in the political circle as the sign of his “honourable exit”. The BJP is not willing to give him the fifth consecutive term as the chief minister. By shifting him out of state would ensure that he continues to be associated with BJP and also his support base does not shift to Congress or RJD.
Soon after Choubey’s observation, the JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar cited Amit Shah’s interview to a news channel saying “NDA partners acknowledge Nitish as the coalition’s leader for the upcoming assembly polls” simply with the motive to contradict his remarks. But insiders maintain that while Gujarati combo does not intend to alienate his supporters, they are toying with the idea to have their man as the new chief minister if the NDA wins the coming assembly polls by year end.. Both, Modi and Amit Shah do not intend to hand over the power to Nitish Kumar again. Like Maharashtra, it will be a BJP led government.
Modi and Shah also nurse the opinion that index of anti-incumbency has shot up considerably against Nitish in recent months. People have come to nurse the view that his mental disorder has been proving a major reason for fall of the law and order and decline of governance in the state. BJP had made “jungle raj” a major poll issue to attack RJD, but Nitish Raj is now being attributed to the same adjective. People say Nitish raj is worst than Lalu’s Jungle Raj.
Bihar has been witnessing massive migration during his rule. Earlier, in forties and fifties, poor used to migrate to Calcutta and Delhi for survival, now the youths and especially the educated, are migrating as there is no job for them in the state. Bihar in recent times is witnessing a sort of forced migration. Bangalore and Hyderabad are the best destinations. If the statistics are to be relied, at least 22 lakh Biharis, especially youths, have migrated to Bangalore. These people have also purchased flats with bank loans. Some of them have even sold out their lands and properties in Bihar.
Unfortunately Nitish government did not even bother to find out the reason and took no measures to put a full stop on this trend. Yet another factor for migration has been the rise in the number of crimes. Some BJP supporters claim that crime has been on decrease. But the fact is otherwise. According to the government sources in 2022, Bihar experienced a notable increase in crimes, with a 23% surge compared to 2021. Specific crime types include murder (2930 cases, second only to Uttar Pradesh), kidnapping and abduction (11822 cases, third after UP and Maharashtra), and crimes against women. Bihar also led in crimes related to land disputes, with 3,336 cases and 815 fatalities. The state’s crime rate per 100,000 people was 422.2 in 2022, but the trend for 2023 and 2024 shows a slight increase to 445.9. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has painted a grim picture of the state’s law and order situation. In crime against women, Bihar is second (3,400 cases) only to UP (4,642 cases), as per the NCTB data.
No doubt just after coming to the power for the first time Nitish attempted to provide a good governance. He undertook development works, like construction of roads and flyovers. These two programmes no doubt helped the bourgeoning new class of middle class contractors and through them Nitish prepared his support base standing on the pyramid of middle caste. This is the basic reason that his frequent political somersaults did not affect his support base.
Though he helped create a new brand of rich people, closely associated with politics, he failed to ameliorate the economic condition of poor and take out state from backwardness. There is no denying that Nitish has been unduly given the sushasan (good governance) babu tag. Though some attribute it to left liberal media and secular forces, true enough impression was created by the Godi media and the feudal and upper caste people. It was part of their machination to discredit Lalu Yadav more. At that stage trials in fodder scam cases were going on. Quite interestingly Nitish used this for his political survival and show red eyes to BJP.
Nitish Kumar has nit been able to resurrect education or health services in the state. Both, major indices for empowerment of the poor, have been in shambles. According to NITI Aayog Bihar was at 18th place among 19 states in its Health Performance Index for 2019-2020. It ranks lowest among all major states in terms of the rates of neonatal mortality and infant mortality. The shortage of healthcare providers — doctors, paramedics and nurses — in public health facilities is the most acute in Bihar among all major states.
At last count, nearly 60,000 posts of doctors and paramedics in public healthcare facilities were lying vacant in the state. According to NITI Aayog Bihar ranks 19 amongst 20 states in Education Quality Index 2019. There is an acute shortage of teachers and non-teaching staff not only in schools, but also in colleges and universities across the state. The Good Governance Index (GGI) compiled by the Government of India’s Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances puts Bihar at 15th place among 18 major states in 2021.
Latest efforts by Rahul Gandhi to rejuvenate the Congress in Bihar has not only unnerved the RSS and BJP, it has been causing concern in the RJD circles. The confrontationist politics unleashed by Rahul Gandhi under the command of Kanhaiya Kumar has been paying dividends as was evident from the participation of youths during the 16 day long “Naukari Do, Migration Roko” yatra across the state. Bihar is the state having worst kind of caste politics. But Rahul’s rally has appealed to the youths of every caste and they have been active participants in the Congress youth rally. Rahul Gandhi is working hard for expanding the base of the party in Bihar. For the state Congress, it is positive development in the year of assembly polls. (IPA Service)
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