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We
were very happy to see Lalu's contribution in
improving railway's performance. We were
delighted to see the positive changes. It was
very gratifying to have endorsement of this
happy augury by way of case studies in reputed
management institutions like IIMs on the reasons
of his success.
People tried to discern the drivers behind the
change in him. Some said he wanted to be the PM
and therefore this change. Others felt he had
realised the limits to which he can hold on to
power sans development, understands the changed
realities and we could expect similar changes in
Bihar too. For a brief period, one held a hope
that both sides of the political fence in Bihar
were seeing the benefits of development oriented
politics and we could be entering an era of
competitive politics for development. Just as
ADMK and DMK fight each other but are one when
it comes to bringing investments and development
to Tamil Nadu.
Alas the hope of the continuation of the changes
to Patna has proved to be a red herring. We are
made to witness again the darker and seamier
side of Lalu's party when in Patna. Somehow the
same Lalu who is being praised by learned
professors of reputed management institutions
for his futuristic vision for the railways in
Delhi ends up pursuing an anti-development path
when it comes to Bihar.
We all know how Bihar, which was anyway lagging
behind other states, was made to languish for
full fifteen years. Just as the rest of the
country took off in the post liberalisation era,
Bihar took a slide in the other direction. Year
after year, the gap between Bihar and the rest
of the country continued to rise.
Against this backdrop, Nitish Kumar's government
is making an honest attempt to bring investment
to Bihar. Those of us who have had the occasion
to interact wtih the officials and ministers
have seen how there is a change in the air. And
there are small but sure signs of development
already taking place. There are the sugar mills
investment, the announcement of opening of
engineering and medical colleges, the plan to
expand the airport at Gaya and the investments
in multiplexes and film city. Unfortunately,
Lalu's party is trying to create needless
controversy about the support provided by the
government to the first investors.
Controversies are being raised about the land
allocation and other support provided to divert
precious energy into fighting the negatives
rather than getting channelised into a positive,
development oriented direction.
Lalu's party appears very aware of the sensitive
nature of the character of the educated Bihari
that makes him vulnerable to mudslinging and
appears to play with their emotions with
consummate ease.
Two prominent NRBs who were at the forefront of
the trickle of investment - Prakash Jha and
Shatrughan Sinha - appear both extremely hurt
and have taken their character assassination to
heart. Shatrughan Sinha appears to have taken a
stand that he does not need to make money in
Bihar and has already withdrawn his application
for investment. Prakash Jha has served notice to
the politicians heaping polemics on him and
intends to take them to court for leveling
baseless allegations. The positive flow of
energy that is so essential to get the inertia
broken in the initial phase has turned negative.
Bolstered by the "success", Rabri presented a
memorandum alleging land allotment scandal to
the governor for the proposed medical college at
Dehri among others. Perhaps their hope is that
if the first few investors are chased away in
this manner, they can continue to rule in the
old development denial mode.
One's heart bleeds to see that the slow trickle
of progress that could have turned to a torrent
is getting halted by the old style shenanigans.
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Comments: |
Mr Sinha, you have posted the
genuine concern of every Bihari.
I wonder what is wrong in that if
the Bihar government is offering
lands to those rare investors on an
attractive rate. This is not at all
something new to Indian context. We
can take example of any state like
AP, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan all
are doing the same thing to woo the
investors.
By looking to our pathetic situation
of law & order and infrastructure in
Bihar, I believe if someone is still
daring to come and invest over there
then we should offer whatever we
have.
The opposition is experiencing
discomfort as this government has
started making progress on all
fronts especially the core issue of
law & order, so I see all this
dharna and hangama as their
frustration spills out and nothing
more.
The government should go ahead with
their plan. Slapping/torturing Anand
Mohan, a person of criminal
background was beginning of new
chapter in Bihar context. We need
such daring police officers and we
must encourage them to keep it up.
But the bacteria of caste has so
badly rooted to us that we overreact
to such incident if the concern
person is from our caste, no worry
whether he is criminal or
politician. I bet if we have a vote
on the topic that you want 1) a
government that is working for
development of Bihar or 2) a
government where most of
representative are from your
caste/community. I am afraid 90%
people will select option 2. And we
all know % of educated people in
Bihar is definitely not 10%.
But still we can hope that some good
news will definitely keep coming
from the corners of Bihar till
Nitish is there. (Do not get me
wrong I am neither from Nalanda nor
share the same caste of our dear CM
;) ) - Sujit, Singapore - Aug. 9,
2006
Dear Mr. Sinha,
You are very right in assessing the
opposition’s stand here. What really
has happened is that this government
has taken a solid step towards
building infrastructure and
developing the state while the last
government (which is in the
opposition now) failed to do any
worthwhile work in these areas. They
are now concerned that if this
government is able to kick-start
even one project which can lead
towards developing infrastructure
and the economy of the state, they
are not going return to the power in
the next elections.
It will take some time to instill
law & order in the state as the
goons till now had political
protection. They still think that
they can do whatever they want and
escape unscathed. But, admiringly,
this government has started to
punish those involved in crimes and
the graph of crimes has come down in
recent months.
All these issues of law & order and
infrastructure are giving a hard
time to the opposition and they have
nothing worthwhile to do. Hence,
they are engaging in dharnas and
rallies. - Vedmani, Ottawa,
Canada - Aug. 12, 2006 |
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