Battle Royal for Bihar-Ratna

by Indra
October 7, 2005

I don’t know whether on the line of Bharat-Ratna- the highest civil award of India, a new award - ‘Bihar-Ratna’ for the greats of Bihar can be created. But if it comes up soon, the three obvious candidates for the award will be the same persons that are leading today the battle royal of the forthcoming assembly election of Bihar.

I was watching a news report from Patna airport showing the number of helicopters that are in use for the election. And when the reporter asked the great passengers who were the same three candidates, the reply was straight and without any feeling of shame for the situations. “Traveling by road would have been the best for the mass contact on the pattern of Sonia’s famous and aggressive road shows that won her the last general election. But as the roads in Bihar are almost non-existent, the helicopters are the only means to reach all the constituencies and most of the people.” In the poor state of Bihar with the top rank in illiteracy and backwardness, helicopter still aids in collecting a respectable size crowd of urchins and villagers in the election meetings that the leaders die for. And who bears the cost of using the helicopters for the campaigning? Naturally the party bears it officially to save the candidate from any trouble from the income-tax department? How silly it was for one of the candidates of the award to say, “We take huge loans to rent them.” I would have loved to know the bank that is providing the loan. I wish they would do it.

But was it only one party or one of the candidates responsible for the horrible conditions of the roads? All the three has one thing in common. All of the candidates have held the senior cabinet position of railways in the central government. Could have they not done something about at least some roads in the state? It is unfortunate but none of them did anything of significant importance for the people of the state in any area.

And surprisingly, RJD-led alliance, called the Secular Democratic Alliance in its manifesto promises ‘completion of the Golden Quadrilateral project in the next one year’. I don’t know why the manifesto doesn’t include East-West corridor project that will considerably cover the northern Bihar. Why does it not include Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sarak Yojna? Why does it not include the promises made in ‘Bharat Nirvan’ project that can change the face of the rural Bihar? The answer is very simple. Whatsoever government come in power, it will hardly do anything for the people of the state, even if someone tries to do that it will not be possible for the rampant corruption prevailing in the system so deep. How hollow it appears, when thee manifesto vows a corruption-free Bihar. Who will dare to take a tough action against the mafia in road construction and abduction sector?

It is heartening to read a news about a new ‘move to give a push to infrastructure in the backward state of Bihar, and that the Center has initiated an ambitious Rs 20,000- crore road development project, to be completed simultaneously in 20 packages.’ But as soon as I read that the Union road and surface transport ministry and the Bihar government will jointly implement the project, my enthusiasm evaporates. I wish the responsibility for road construction were given to the agency of army that builds the border roads. And the most disturbing is the news of the abduction of ‘Golu’. Why should not the manifests of the three great alliances make some vocal promises about the abduction industry?

I wonder why can’t the people of Bihar boycott the candidates visiting them in helicopters. I wish they vote in larger percentage, but let them do that without hearing these false promises and sometimes false accusations too. It will be unfortunate if the people of Bihar do not give a decisively clear verdict. If they don’t, they deserve the same road conditions and their ranking at the bottom of the development indices. Let it be a failure of a democracy without proper preparation.

Let any of the candidates of ‘Biharratnas’ win the election. I wish they stop taking the people for granted and avoid misleading them.

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