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India
Today is organizing this annual conclave since
few years. It collects ‘the finest minds at
work’ from diverse areas to speak on a theme
with a mission. It generates ‘ideas that can
make India a lot more different than what it is
today, ideas that can reduce the divide between
the many Indias that exist in global
perception.’ Themes have been "India Tomorrow:
Global Giant or Pygmy?" and "Building an Indian
Century". Last year, it was "Perception Versus
Reality", and this year it selected "Bridging
the Divide". Arun Purie, the editor-in-chief in
his opening address said, ‘India Rising has
become India Everywhere. This India is not the
only India. Beyond the multiplexes and
multinationals, there is another India-the India
of dispossession and denial, the India of
dysfunctional anarchy, the land without
justice.’ And then he gives example: ‘Bangalore
may be the abiding metaphor of the best-selling
Indian narrative in globalisation. Sorry, the
cruel reality of Bihar cannot be wished away.’ I
felt bad about it.
It made me think why only Bihar? What are the
conditions of many other states?
As per the general perceptions, Bihar is the
worst of the lot. Media more and perhaps certain
statistics of some studies have created that.
Bihar has some strength too. No one talks about
it. Many other states are also no better. Why
did West Bengal gradually lose its position of
respect? How has been Buddha bringing in the
lost glory? Why have Tamil Nadu and Andhra
Pradesh moved ahead? Why have Orissa and Assam
remained so backward? Bihar was rich when the
portion of Jharkhand was with it. Today Bihar
must decide about its priority. What can be its
strength? How should it build itself? I have
been advancing the idea of appointing some
reputed consultants as West Bengal did. I don’t
understand why can’t it do that.
Nitish Kumar was the one of the two Chief
Ministers that addressed the conclave.
Unfortunately, both the Chief Ministers were
from the states run by the political parties
other than the ruling party at the center. Both
raised the question on the state and the center
relations. And Nitish Kumar raised certain other
issues too. Unfortunately, many of his replies
to the questions raised at the conclave were in
Hindi. India today couldn’t perhaps get it
translated on its website. It simply says,
Nitish replied in Hindi. I could understand the
reason. Nitish is an honest hard worker. But I
strongly feel that Bihar does require certain
surgical bold, may be ruthless actions too,
particularly about its law and order situation.
It must also decide on some five-ten projects of
importance and work on that aggressively to show
war like significant progress indicating win to
change the perception and build credibility for
its capability to do big things, as other states
are doing. One such a step is to do something
significant to join the IT/ITES/BPO/KPO club.
Nitish put forward his ideas:
“Bihar is changing. Things have started looking
up. And more than anything else, the perception
of people outside the state is changing.” I am
not sure but I feel like believing it. “Biharis
are ready to break yet another myth that there
can't be development.”
“We all want to develop the country, help it
emerge as an economic power. But can it be done
at the expense of one state? Can others develop
while one state is left behind? One state cannot
get all the investments while the other cannot
keep exporting its manpower. We have to think
over it. The Centre has to think over it.”
“The Centre must realise that every state has
its own aspirations for development. The Centre
should not impose its development plan and
style. Every state has its own priorities, which
have to be taken into consideration. The
existing mechanism is not sufficient. The Centre
must also realise that we are living in a
coalition era. So there has to be politics of
economics. Only then can we analyse the causes
of regional imbalance and the regional
developed-backward divide in the right
perspective. During the NDA regime there was a
plan to interlink rivers, to create a garland of
rivers. The aim was to trigger off a kind of
socio-economic growth in the country that never
existed before. The tragedy of Bihar is that
while it was flooded in the north and eastern
parts, other parts faced drought. My Government
is now planning to interlink rivers within the
state to end this imbalance. Do you know that
the holy Ganga passes through Bihar but the
state does not get even a drop of Ganga water?
It is checked and diverted in Uttar Pradesh. The
rivers of Bihar contribute to the river's flow,
but it is checked and diverted in Bengal
downstream. This is a matter of concern.”
"Investors have also begun showing interest. I
can assure you that investors would be given
full protection. We have drawn up a plan. The
state Government would get central forces at its
own cost to provide security cover to all those
who will be engaged in development work. I
learnt that the average age in the police force
is 37 years. To have a force that can face the
challenge, we are going to recruit and train
policemen, but since that would take time, we
have, meanwhile, planned to hire 14,000 ex-army
men for one year. The ancient Nalanda University
in Bihar was a centre of learning that drew
students from across the world. We will bring
back students who migrate to other states in
search of better opportunities and the days of
academic glory will be back."
All these are good ideas. Can those be
translated into projects through feasibility
studies? Can he get started the easiest one of
the river linking projects with all his strength
and show progress? Can he build a Nalanda like
education hub in the vicinity of Nalanda? Can he
get build a super express-way between Patna to
Nalanda, or extend it up to Bodh Gaya and
connect to the GQ? People are having a lot of
expectations from Nitish Kumar. But if his
ministers require their revitalization to work
long hours of honest work for their state
through Ramdev’s Yoga route, I get into a
depressive mode.
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Comments: |
Every year it is India Today
Conclave that ranks BIHAR on the
bottom.
You put the facts very well Indira
ji. However, I contradict two of
your arguments:
1. You asked, "Why have Orissa and
Assam remained so backward?"
The fact is neither of these two
states is backward. In last 10
years, Orissa has shown tremendous
growth. Many major IT companies
settled in Bhubaneshwar such as
Infosys, Satyam, Wipro, TCS, CTS and
many are lined up. Don't forget
about the largest-ever investment
deal with POSCO. Many new steel
industries such as Bhusan, Jindal,
and TATA are queued up in Orissa and
it has overflow of electricity and
above all this state has maintained
good law and order. It's CM Navin
Patnaik is unmarried and dedicated
himself towards all-round
development of his state.
About Assam, its citizens are happy
and economically sound. They don't
need to migrate to other states for
bread and butter. It has IIT and IIM.
2. I don't understand why it
depresses you, if the ministers are
revitalizing with Yoga. When Ramdev
was not there, were these
ministers/bureaucrats/others engaged
in physical exercises? We are
thankful to Ramdev as he
revolutionalised the physical and
mental exercises all over India. I
have seen people are doing Yoga in
trains, flights, and everywhere.
This type of revolution is needed to
make a country physically and
mentally healthy. - Tarakeswar
Dubey - Mar. 22, 2006 |
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