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Naya Bihar’s Nayi Kahani:HARBINGER OF CHANGE?, by Poonam I Kaushish, 27 November 2010 Print E-mail

Political Diary

New Delhi, 27 November 2010


Naya Bihar’s Nayi Kahani

HARBINGER OF CHANGE?

By Poonam I Kaushish

 

At the end, it was all about feel good. A two month long, six phase grueling election which culminated in anointing Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister of Bihar. A 59-year old engineer-turned politician who rewrote the rules of the political game and became a cause célèbre of hope and celebration. A symbol of change for people starved of governance and touched people's lives. A new political awakening. All about Naya Bihar’s nayi kahani!

 

Call him a modern day Chanakya, Nitish’s landslide victory with an unprecedented mandate of 203 seats for the NDA in the 243-member Assembly illustrated that two small words: development and good governance is all it takes. In a short span of five years, he pulled Bihar from being India’s black hole of malfeasance, lawlessness and crime with his 'SSS' of politics: Sadak, Shiksha, Suraksha. Bluntly, his development agenda turned turtle Bihar’s caste DNA. Bihar celebrated 11% economic growth last year.

 

Using his native political astuteness, the re-elected Chief Minister Nitish blended his secularist ideology with pragmatic politics, combined his development plank with innovative social-economic engineering equations to sit on Bihar’s Raj gaddi once again.

By tailoring a social rainbow of upper castes, non-Yadav backwards, extremely backward classes, politically crucial Maha-dalits and a sizeable share of Muslims he has ambushed the socio-political foundations of every Party.

 

At another level, Nitish’s victory underscores how he has jealously guarded his secular image even while staying with the BJP. By keeping his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi out of Bihar he made the BJP behave the way he wants it to in the State, thereby increasing his acceptability among the Muslims. Notwithstanding, both are India’s 21st Century poster-boys for development.

 

For the BJP, its stunning performance of bagging 91 of the 102 seats it contested hitting a strike rate of 90% ensconced a message loud and clear--- moderation pays in politics. What sweet irony. The very State which propelled Hindutva to centre-stage in 1990 when patriarch Advani was arrested at Samistipur en route to Ayodhya during his famous Ram rath yatra today became the torch bearer for the electorate reposing its faith in the Saffron Sangh. Astonishingly, the Party performed admirably in seven-Muslim dominated areas.

 

Importantly, by deciding to dispense with its Hindutva agenda reflects the transformation that the BJP has undergone in the State. A significant ground level shift underscored by the deafening silence of “Jai Shri Ram” during electioneering and the swearing-in ceremony. The beginning of a new journey of re-conciliation and accommodative politics. Whereby a moderate political agenda is likely to yield it good dividends in becoming a pivot of a potent anti-Congress political platform. The fact that even Muslims broke ranks of the MY social grouping to pitch for the NDA could encourage regional parties now to do business with the BJP. It was the fear of losing the Muslim vote that was made them to stay away from the Saffron brigade.

 

However, even the BJP basks in its victory in Bihar; it must grapple with two issues that will have a bearing on its ability to occupy the centre-stage again at the national level. One, its virtual surrender to its rebellious Karnataka leader Yeddyurappa, who has defied the Party leadership and stays on as Chief Minister. Arguably, can a Party adopt double standards: Allow its scam-tainted Chief Minister to stay when it up’s the corruption ante against the UPA at the Centre?

 

Two, what happens to its traditional Hindutva brand of politics. How does it reconcile its electoral success and need for decent allies in the coalition milieu to go forward in the electoral sweepstakes. For that the Party would have to reformulate, or even sever, its innate dependence on the RSS. A time to hold another chintan baithak to understand the internal manthan. 

 

Paradoxically, the poll verdict could not have been more brutal for RJD’s Lalu Yadav, the man who dominated Bihar politics for 15 years and became the face of the State. Exactly 20 years after he arrested Advani, Lalu has been devoured by the Saffron Sangh in his own fiefdom which exposed him as a venal politician driven by pelf and power. His 'jungle raj' politics based on repression and terror was thrown out by an innocuous ink dot on the voters’ finger. So much for the “king” who today can no longer even call himself even the “kingmaker”. It remains to be seen if his kind of politics can flourish again?

             

For the Congress, already reeling under the torrent of skeletons from its closet, Kalmadis, Chavans, the results are a devastating setback for its revival efforts in Bihar. It not only showed an abysmal lack of electoral depth about the Hindi Heartland State. It was a reality check for Rahul Gandhi whereby the Party got only four seats of the 234 it contested. His unimaginative and uninspiring urban-garden variety rhetoric rooted in the clichéd ‘two Indias: Brand India and Asli Bharat’ theme marked by an absence of a clear political message, support base and well-oiled organisational machinery made plain that the Party’s hopes of revival in the Hindi heartland is going to be a long, bumpy and hard road.

 

All in all, Bihar’s poll quake favouring the NDA, promises to have repercussions at the national level for the Congress-led UPA, already battling a serious image crisis at the Centre. Boosted by its victory, a resurgent NDA could harden its position against the Government in the coming days, sparking off more legislative deadlocks and weakening the Centre’s position in policy battles with the Opposition.

 

Importantly, the Bihar elections could well be the harbinger of change, nationally. With half of India’s population in the 18-35 age bracket the aspirational levels of a young democracy has changed dramatically. No longer are old clichés, Styrofoam promises and histrionics palatable. All demand an Obama-like “Yes we can” politics. Whereby progress is all set to overshadow Mandal-Kamandal politics.

 

In sum, the writing is on the wall for our scam-tainted netagan. The people now know that like the deadly chikengunya machchar our polity epitomizes the dark side of democracy, of identity and caste-based politics. Wherein governance doesn’t figure in any equation, it’s all about money, honey. If they continue to wallow in their moribund cesspool of politricking their days are numbered.

 

The aam aadmi will no longer settle for any political hyperbole from the morass of empty commitments and promises of delivering palpable changes on the ground. Time for our netagan to walk the talk on the new lexicon: Develop, govern or we will boot you out! ----- INFA

 

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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