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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